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PinPoint Testing Raises $1.2M for Expansion

3 min read

PinPoint Testing LLC of Little Rock, which offers drug testing and consulting services, recently raised $1.2 million to fuel its growth.

The money will be used to add a manufacturing line in Little Rock for its drug-testing product called ToxBox, said founder and CEO Jeffery Moran. The product will continue to be manufactured by Cayman Chemical of Ann Arbor, Michigan. But the product “has grown to where we need added capacity,” he said.

Founded in 2013 by Moran and his wife, Cindy, PinPoint has seen its revenue climb every year. In 2014, its sales were about $100,000, and the next year sales grew to about $500,000. Last year, revenue jumped to $1 million.

The company is projecting sales of $3 million this year, Jeffery Moran said.

The ToxBox is purchased by clinical or forensic labs across the country to test bodily fluids such as blood or urine for drugs. The product can test for more than 400 substances from narcotics to over-the-counter medications to prescription drugs.

“What took off is the popularity of this idea,” Moran said. “They use it. They throw it away, and then they buy the next box.”

He said that he was able to license the product “essentially overnight with very little startup capital.”

The test could also be used to monitor patients to make sure they are taking medications that have been prescribed and not selling prescription pain pills on the streets. Emergency care workers also could use the tests to learn what drug a patient overdosed on.

Moran said laboratories have a hard time testing for the emerging illegal drugs and keeping up with the current ones. “That’s where we come in to fill that gap,” he said.

In addition to that product, PinPoint offers contract testing services in its lab and consulting services, including serving as an expert witness in court cases.

“I do think we’ve found a niche area,” he said. “Bringing the three together is very much a niche market. I’ll have a competitor that may only provide consulting, but they don’t own a laboratory or create their own products.”

Moran said he and his wife started the company as a way to create high-tech, science-related jobs in Arkansas, where they both were born and raised.

Moran, 43, had been branch chief at the Public Health Laboratory at the Arkansas Department of Health.

Cindy Moran, 40, is the scientific operations director at the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.

“I’m a scientist learning business as I go,” he said.

PinPoint first leased laboratory space at the BioVentures business incubator at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

As the company grew, it needed more cash, Moran said. PinPoint raised $750,000 in equity in September 2015, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

In its latest round of fundraising, PinPoint generated about $600,000 in equity and a $600,000 line of credit, according to last month’s filing.

He said that both offerings met their goals.

In June, PinPoint expanded and leased additional space at the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute inside Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

PinPoint also “supports the academic mission [of ACRI] by providing contact analytical support for the researchers,” Moran said.

PinPoint has six full-time employees and is planning to add three to five this year. “We’re still a small company, but we’re certainly off to the races,” Moran said.

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