NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Swiss molecular diagnostics developer Diagnoplex today said it has closed a Series A financing extension with Debiopharm Group.
Diagnoplex said today that Debiopharm has committed to invest “a substantial amount” in the company, depending on certain milestones, and has provided half of that commitment up front, although the company did not provide specific financial details about the investment.
Through its initial series A financing round, which included investors Novartis Venture Fund, NeoMed, and Initiative Capital Romandie, Diagnoplex raised CHF 10 million ($10.4 million).
Diagnoplex is currently conducting a multi-center clinical validation study of its Colox test, a blood-based test for early detection of colon cancer that includes centers in Switzerland, Germany, and South Korea.
The firm’s testing platform uses RT-qPCR, initially developed by Stavros Therianos, founder and CEO of Diagnoplex while he was at the University of Rochester, to quantify up to 60 genes at the same time.
"We believe Diagnoplex is well-positioned to address a huge unmet medical need in colon cancer screening,” Thierry Mauvernay, Executive VP of Debiopharm said in a statement.