Pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers-Squibb co-led a $75 series B round for US-based genomic data technology developer Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) yesterday with venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA).
Inova Strategic Investments, a subsidiary of care provider Inova Health System, also took part in the round, alongside Co-win Healthcare Fund, Helsinn Investment Fund, Windham Venture Partners, Maryland Venture Fund and undisclosed existing investors.
Founded in 2010, PGDx is developing tissue-based and liquid biopsy genomic testing products that will help laboratories analyse the genome for cancer. The series B cash will support a bid to expand its in vitro diagnostic (IVD) genome testing services for patients.
PGDx chief executive Douglas Ward said: “Proceeds from this financing will support our product development strategy designed to secure global regulatory approvals of tissue and liquid biopsy-based IVD cancer tests, as we also build the commercial engine to deliver our tests to clinical laboratories worldwide.”
Paul Biondi, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s head of business development, added: “We are leveraging translational medicine and data analytics internally and through important partnerships to understand how we can deliver the right medicine to the right patient at the right time to achieve the best outcome.
“PGDx is a pioneer in cancer genome testing, and we are excited to become a strategic investor as they broaden their focus to develop and market IVD tests and seek to make tumour profiling more accessible to patients.”
NEA had already led PGDx’s $21.4m series A round in 2015, which included Windham Venture Partners and Nanjing Kaiyuan Growth Capital Investments.
The company had previously raised $2.8m in funding through 2014, it said, before adding $4.3m in debt financing in 2015, according to a securities filing.