NEW YORK – Cambridge, UK-based cancer startup Biofidelity said on Thursday that it has raised $12 million in a Series A financing round.
The firm will use the funding to accelerate the development and clinical validation of oncology panels for treatment selection and patient monitoring, with an initial focus on non-small cell lung cancer.
The financing round was led by BlueYard Capital, with additional funding from investors including Longwall Ventures and Agilent Technologies.
Biofidelity is developing a pipeline of molecular, blood-based assays to help physicians quickly determine the best treatments for cancer patients and to monitor their progression. The firm's proprietary technology uses four sets of reagents to identify a targeted DNA sequence while removing background DNA in a liquid sample.
"Delivering on the promise of precision medicine to improve outcomes for cancer patients relies on clinicians being able to precisely identify actionable genetic markers," Biofidelity CEO Barnaby Balmforth said in a statement. "Our assays will enable [clinicians] to make the right decisions regarding treatment and to detect when a cancer has recurred or become resistant to therapy."
With the recent funding round, Biofidelity has raised a total of about $13.7 million in funding since it was cofounded in early 2019 by Balmforth and Cameron Frayling.
"With an initial focus on well-established, widely reimbursed markers used in targeted treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, Biofidelity has potential in a broad range of cancers and future applications in routine monitoring of patients for detection of resistance to therapy and disease recurrence," Frayling added.