Cleveland HeartLab is continuing what MedCity News is calling "explosive growth" for the biomarker test-maker since it was spun out of the Cleveland Clinic less than two years ago. The company just closed an $18.4 million Series B funding round that further validates its biomarker products and business model.
Dr. Stanley Hazen and colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic developed the company's initial cardiac inflammation biomarker myeloperoxidase. But, as MedCity reported back in September 2010, that initial product did not sell well as a test kit clients can do themselves. So, instead, they made the test part of a lineup of cardiac tests done by Cleveland HeartLab. That was, apparently, the right formula and the company is seeing great growth, with clients adopting the company's services at a rate "beyond what we had hoped for," CEO Jake Orville told MedCity News at the time.
This latest investment, made by Excel Venture Management and HealthCare Ventures, both of Boston, will help the company move to bigger headquarters in Cleveland's "Health-Tech Corridor," reports Crain's Cleveland Business. The company employs 80 people and is looking to double that in two years.
The investment and growth plans seem to validate not only HeartLab's product and business model, but also seems to prove that basic biomarker science does eventually turn into real products and profits on the ground.
- here's HeartLab's release
- read the story in MedCity News
- and in Crain's Cleveland Business