NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Molecular diagnostics firm Metamark Genetics has closed on a $13 million Series B financing round, while also announcing today the resignation of its President and CEO.
The Cambridge Mass.-based firm said proceeds for the Series B round will go toward refinement of its protein-based prostate cancer prognostic tests and the completion of final clinical validation work. Metamark is developing two prognostic tests, one to use prostate cancer biopsy tissue to help doctors better evaluate whether a patient has a slow growing or aggressive form of prostate cancer, and the second to predict the longer-term course of prostate cancer.
The financing round was led by current and new private investors, Metamark said.
"This new funding comes on the heels of Metamark successfully completing important proof-of-concept work last spring," Kenneth Weg, Metamark's co-founder and founding chairman of the board of directors, said in a statement. "This enables us to proceed with diagnostic and drug target research at an accelerated rate and moves us closer to our goal of achieving commercialization of the Metamark prostate cancer test."
The company also announced changes to its management and board, including the resignation of President and CEO Mark Straley to pursue other opportunities. Metamark is conducting a search for his replacement.
Also, Michael Kauffman has joined Metamark's board and will serve as interim executive director until Straley's replacement is found. Most recently, Kauffman co-founded Karyopharm Therapeutics. He was previously vice president of medicine at Millennium Predictive Medicine, the diagnostics and pharmacogenomics arm of Millennium Pharmaceuticals.
Greg Critchfield was also appointed lead director of the board. He has been on the board of Metamark for two years and was previously president and a board member of Myriad Genetics Laboratories.