Grail, a US-based oncology diagnostics spinout of genomics technology provider Illumina, is seeking funding from investors including telecommunications group SoftBank, CNBC reported yesterday.
The company has also approached multiple sovereign wealth funds, though only Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company was identified as a potential investor in the round, which would follow $900m in series B capital raised by Grail in March this year.
Grail is targeting a final close of more than $1bn for the series B round and could raise as much as $1.8bn, according to TechCrunch.
The March tranche was led by venture capital firm Arch Venture Partners and featured pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson’s corporate venturing unit, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, through its local investment vehicle Johnson & Johnson UK Treasury.
Pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene and Merck also took part in the round, as did medical device maker Varian Medical Systems, e-commerce firm Amazon, internet group Tencent and pharmaceuticals supplier McKesson’s corporate VC unit, McKesson Ventures.
Founded in early 2016, Grail is developing a blood test that can detect early-stage cancer by exposing free-floating tumour DNA in a patient’s bloodstream. Earlier detection increases a patient’s chances of survival.
The approach combines Illumina’s high-intensity sequencing technology with population-scale clinical studies data and computer science.
The new capital will fund a large breast cancer trial that aims to analyse the blood of 120,000 women in several geographies, and a clinical study involving 10,000 participants to generate a more detailed map of cancer genetics.
Grail has already used $278m of the series B cash to repurchase shares from Illumina, reducing the corporate’s shareholding to a minority stake. Another $100m was used to acquire China-based cancer testing technology producer Cirina in June 2017.
Illumina and Arch Venture Partners previously co-led Grail’s series A round, which initially closed at $100m in January 2016 before being extended to $125m.