Agendia, a US and Netherlands-based personalized medicine company for treating breast cancer, has raised $65m in its series F round from a consortium led by the Debiopharm Group, a Switzerland-based drugs company.
The syndicate was joined by several new international investors including Korys, the Colruyt’s family office, and existing investors, including venture capital firm Gilde Healthcare Partners, family office Van Herk Group, Dutch bank ING Corporate Investments and Breedinvest, the holding company of the Blokker households goods stores.
David Macdonald, chief executive of Agendia since his promotion from chief operating officer in October when Bernhard Sixt moved to an advisory capacity, said: "We will use these funds to expand commercialization of our current breast cancer suite of tests, as well as for development of our personalized medicine pipeline. We have recently launched our Symphony suite in a Formaldehyde Fixed-Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) format and we are preparing to launch our ColoPrint recurrence test for stage II colon cancer prognosis and prediction."
In January, Peter Wulff joined Agendia as chief financial officer after holding the same post at peers Alphatec, Artes Medical, CryoCor, Natural Alternatives International and Epimmune over the prior 25 years.
Agendia was founded in 2003 as a spin-off of the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI)/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital in Amsterdam where it had access to the world’s largest frozen tumour bank. Original shareholders include the founders of Agendia and Stichting Fondsen Nederland that originated from NKI, while Gilde joined in the A round in 2004. Its series E round closed at $23m in September 2009, with its D round at $34m two years earlier.
The third round in mid-2006 raised an undisclosed amount from Van Herk, Gilde, NKI and private equity firms AXA Private Equity and Global Life Sciences Ventures, a year after the B round (of also undisclosed size).