NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – XDx said today that it has raised $14.4 million through a round of Series G financing that included investments from all of its active previous investors.
The company plans to use the money to support its commercial activities for the AlloMap Molecular Expression Testing system and to continue its ongoing research programs.
The AlloMap is used to help identify heart transplant recipients who have a low probability of moderate or severe acute cellular rejection. The test is an in vitro diagnostic multivariate index assay service that assesses gene expression profiles of RNA isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
The Brisbane, Calif.-based company also is evaluating its gene expression discovery and development platform for applications with other immune-mediated conditions. These programs include a gene expression study that will follow patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, a chronic autoimmune disorder affecting over 300,000 US patients per year, to develop new blood tests that will help doctors predict which patients will flare, when the flares will occur, and how severe the flares will be.
Led by Bristol-Myers Squibb, the funding round included investments from Burrill Venture Capital; Duff, Ackerman & Goodrich; Integral Capital Partners; Intel Capital; Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers; Sprout Group's New Leaf Venture Partners; and TPG Biotechnology.
While the biotech venture capital environment is currently challenging, the round of financing "underscores our confidence in the significant potential for the company's gene expression testing to expand into other areas of transplant medicine, as well as autoimmune diseases," Brook Byers, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and chairman of the Board of Directors of XDx, said in a statement.