NEW YORK – Cancer diagnostic testing firm Pillar Biosciences announced Tuesday that it has closed a $29.7 Series C preferred stock financing round led by ORI Healthcare Fund. It also announced CE marking for its Onco/Reveal Dx lung and colon cancer in vitro diagnostic assay.
The Natick, Massachusetts-based assay developer said it will use the funds to accelerate expansion of its clinical and research-use next-generation sequencing panels and to expand its global commercial reach.
"We are a strong believer in using NGS tumor testing to make precision medicine the first line treatment," Simone Song, Senior Partner of ORI Healthcare Fund, said in a statement. "Pillar's Slimamp technology is fast, accurate, user friendly, and cost effective. We have confidence that Pillar will fulfill an unmet medical need and thus bring true benefits to cancer patients."
The Slimamp target enrichment chemistry offers a single tube, amplicon-based assay and is compatible with Illumina, Thermo Fisher Scientific Ion Torrent, and MGI sequencing platforms. The firm also offers bioinformatics tools to enable variant calling.
Pillar received an $18 million investment from ORI Healthcare Fund in 2016, and it has a comarketing agreement with BGI subsidiary MGI Tech as well as an IVD development partnership with Illumina.
In 2019, the firm formed a joint venture with China Biotech Services Holdings to provide diagnostic products and services to Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. China Biotech Services Holdings participated in an undisclosed Series B financing round.