Pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co’s Merck Global Health Innovation Fund has added $5m to a series D round for US-based precision medicine provider GNS Healthcare that now totals $28m.
Founded in 2000, GNS has developed artificial intelligence software that processes a range of data, enabling users to build causal models in order to predict how patients will respond to different medical treatments.
The $23m first close was led by care provider Cigna’s corporate venturing unit, Cigna Ventures, in July 2019, and included pharmaceutical companies Celgene and Amgen, the latter through subsidiary Amgen Ventures.
The tranche also included Echo Health Ventures, a joint venture by care provider Cambia Health Solutions and health insurance supplier Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, as well as Alexandria Venture Investments, part of life sciences real estate trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Colin Hill, co-founder, chairman and chief executive of GNS Healthcare, said: “We are excited to have Merck GHI invest in this next phase of our growth strategy.
“This funding will enable us to leverage our in silico cancer patients across clinical development and market access to drive the discovery of responding subpopulations, conduct in silico combination therapy optimisation and line of therapy change.”
The company said it has now raised $66m in total, $10m of which came in a 2015 series C round featuring Celgene, Cambia Health Solutions, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, diversified conglomerate Mitsui, healthcare provider Heritage Provider Network and Gi Global Health Fund.
