US-headquartered liquid cancer biopsy developer Nucleix raised $55m yesterday from investors including Lilly Asia Ventures, a corporate venture capital vehicle for pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly.
Investment manager RA Capital Management led the round, which also featured Lyfe Capital, Milfam, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, and existing backers including OrbiMed, Aurum Ventures, DSC Investment, OCI Bio Investments and private investor Zohar Zisapel.
Founded in Israel, Nucleix is working on a liquid biopsy dubbed Lung EpiCheck, which will utilise the company’s EpiCheck methylation blood assay technology to detect lung cancer at an earlier point than traditional tests.
Chris Hibberd, Nucleix’s CEO, explained: “Early detection of cancer from a blood sample is like listening for a whisper in a crowded room – you need to separate a faint signal from considerable background noise. EpiCheck minimises sample loss and background noise while detecting minute cancer epigenetic signals with greater sensitivity than other technologies.
“This new funding enables us to further demonstrate the power of the technology through a focused programme in lung cancer, advancing tests designed to be highly sensitive, easily deployed and cost effective.”
The company had raised $3m from angel investors before OrbiMed and Zohar Zisapel added $5.5m in 2014. They both returned for a $3m round alongside Aurum Ventures two years later.
