Saladax secures $22.4M from Chinese pharma giant

Saladax Biomedical drew a $22.4 million cash infusion from a major Chinese pharmaceutical company that will help advance development and expanded sales efforts for its cancer treatment dose management diagnostic tests.

And the strategic investment from Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical isn't just money in the bank. Subsidiary Fosun Long March Medical Science will become Saladax's manufacturing distribution and regulatory partner in China under a separate but related agreement, opening a substantial market for Saladax's MyCare oncology dose management assays.

What this deal represents is the advance, and globalization even, of yet another personalized medicine-related diagnostic approach. MyCare is a series of blood tests designed to help measure the effectiveness of various chemotherapy drugs and make sure patients have the best possible and most accurate dosing for their situation. Saladax President and CEO Kevin Harter said in a statement that China represents the company's largest global market for its tests.

In the U.S., Saladax now has a CLIA-certified laboratory and plans to offer a number of MyCare diagnostic tests in the U.S. by mid-2013. The company is also focused on expanding its companion diagnostics reach. Last August, it inked a deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) to develop companion diagnostics for a number of new drugs in the pharmaceutical giant's pipeline. Saladax is also focused on developing an Alzheimer's diagnostic.

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