Liquid biopsy company Epic Sciences Inc. reeled in $24 million in a series G financing co-led by Deerfield Management and Arsenal Capital Partners. The funds will be used to build the commercial infrastructure needed successfully market DefineMBC, its comprehensive blood-based test for patients with metastatic breast cancer.
A new method for imaging microvascular blood flow which will allow for better diagnosis of vascular diseases such as diabetic foot ulcers has been developed by researchers from the department of biomedical engineering at Linkoping University, Sweden, in cooperation with Perimed AB.
Heartflow Inc. is feeling the love of investors again as it closed a $215 series F financing round led by Bain Capital Life Sciences. The round marks a return to the equity markets after several years away; the company closed its series E in 2017 and a $65 million venture round in 2019. In early 2022, Heartflow scrapped its plans to go public through a special purchase acquisition company (SPAC) merger with Longview Acquisition, citing what both companies called “current unfavorable market conditions.” Longview had offered $690 million in July 2021, in a deal that implied an enterprise value of $2.4 billion at the time.
Mercy Bioanalytics Inc. stepped into the increasingly competitive early cancer detection field with a $41 million series A financing round to support its Halo liquid biopsy platform. Novalis Lifesciences led the oversubscribed round with participation from Sozo Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, Iselect Fund, American Cancer Society BrightEdge and Broadway Angels, an all-women venture capital group. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, Bruker Corp. and existing investors also contributed to the round.
Previse, formerly known as Capsulomics Inc., raised $3 million in seed financing to support the launch of its first laboratory-developed test (LDT), Esopredict. The precision medicine test is designed to detect Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and predict which BE patients will progress to esophageal cancer.
Vitestro Holding BV reported raising $12.7 million in series A financing round to develop the world’s first autonomous blood drawing device. This round was led by Sonder Capital Inc., alongside existing investors and new angel investors with experience in the clinical laboratory and med-tech industry. “Thanks to this fundraising, we are going to accelerate the product development, prepare EU marketing authorization, and initiate production,” Toon Overbeeke, CEO and co-founder of Vitestro, explains to BioWorld.
Medical robotics startup Noah Medical Inc. is conducting a first-in-human clinical trial to assess the safety and feasibility of its Galaxy system to improve lung cancer diagnosis. The device received U.S. FDA clearance on March 1 for use in bronchoscopic visualization and accessing patient airways for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
A new blood test developed by Durin Technologies Inc. and Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine detected the presence of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in nearly all asymptomatic patients who went on to developed cognitive impairment or dementia, a study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found. The test uses eight autoantibody biomarkers to identify patients with the disease at pre-symptomatic, prodromal and mild-moderate stages of disease.
From Carl Icahn’s point of view, Illumina Inc.’s desired reintegration of its former spinoff is more a poisoned chalice than a holy Grail. In his opening salvo to a proxy fight, Icahn published an open letter March 13 to other Illumina shareholders referencing the “extreme displeasure” of investors with Illumina’s “reckless” determination to acquire Grail Inc., despite European regulators’ strong opposition to the deal.
