OncoCell MDx Inc., a Royal Oak-based pan-disease immunogenomics platform company, has raised $22.2 million in a Preferred Series B financing to support development of a single blood test to detect and stage cancer and other diseases.
The financing was led by Savitr Capital with participation from existing investors.
This funding, which brings the company’s total to $30 million in investment, bolsters its balance sheet and supports ongoing development and commercialization of its pan-disease diagnostic testing platform. The company plans to launch a blood test for detection and grading of aggressive prostate cancer next year.
“OncoCell is harnessing the power of the immune system and leveraging their proprietary immunogenomics technology to diagnose and stage disease early when there is the greatest opportunity for cure,” says Andrew Midler, managing member of Savitr.
“We are developing and commercializing novel noninvasive tests that provide accurate diagnostic information quickly to physicians and their patients to help optimize patient treatment and improve patient outcomes,” says Mark McDonough, president and CEO of OncoCell MDx.
“In a relatively short time, we have built a database of over 2,000 patient subjects analyzed with RNA-Seq and identified unique immunogenomic signatures that can discriminate healthy patients from those with indolent versus aggressive disease,” he continues.
“In prostate cancer, we’ve developed a blood test to enable improved staging and determine if a patient can safely forego invasive surgery or radiation therapy. Then, by virtue of our noninvasive approach, the patient can be serially tested to rule out disease progression, reducing the cost of care, and improving quality of life.”
