Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Pillar Biosciences Closes $29.7M Series C Financing Round

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.

The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.