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| Michael Pellini, CEO of Foundation Medicine |
Foundation Medicine has pulled in a sizeable $42.5 million Series B financing round, seriously juicing its capacity to support commercial sales of its signature molecular diagnostic test and advance another one in the pipeline.
As our sister publication FierceBiotech reports, the company plans to use the money to accelerate the commercial rollout of FoundationOne, its diagnostic test designed to evaluate solid tumors and their various mutations, and then match a patient to the best possible treatment. At $5,800 per use, the CLIA-certified test is a unique mix of genetic sequencing and data gathering, and can ferret out a substantial number of genetic alterations for 200 cancer-related genes. More than 400 physicians in 16 countries have ordered the test since its June 2012 launch, according to Foundation Medicine.
Foundation Medicine CEO Michael Pellini told FierceBiotech that the funding will also support the launch of a second test, one that evaluates hematological malignancies.
Launched about two years ago, Foundation Medicine is based on technology developed at Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute. The company completed its new round with a number of public crossover funds: Deerfield Management Company, Casdin Capital, Redmile Group and an undisclosed fund. Strategic investors LabCorp, Roche Venture Fund and WuXi Corporate Venture Fund also took part. All joined existing investors Third Rock Ventures, Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Located in Cambridge, MA, Foundation previously raised $33.5 million for its Series A round. The company additionally is already collaborating with partners including Celgene ($CELG), Novartis ($NVS) and Sanofi ($SNY). Yesterday, FierceBiotech also named Foundation Medicine as one this year's Fierce 15 companies.
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- check out FierceBiotech's coverage
Special Report: Foundation Medicine – 2012 FierceBiotech Fierce 15