These days, there’s seemingly no limit to the amount of venture capital being poured into the diagnostic sector, as startups in the space continue to improve upon their already ground-breaking COVID-19 testing technologies.
Sense Biodetection is learning this firsthand, after reopening the series B funding round it closed earlier this year to let another $15 million into its stables. The tacked-on funds came from Koch Industries subsidiary Koch Disruptive Technologies.
The add-on brings Sense’s series B haul to $65 million. The $50 million first wave of the round from this past April was also led by the Koch VC fund—with additional support from previous Sense supporters Cambridge Innovation Capital, Earlybird Health, Jonathan Milner and Mercia Asset Management.
The newly bulked-up funds will help Sense begin rolling out its COVID test as soon as the FDA signs off on its emergency use authorization application. The test runs on Sense’s Veros system, which the company says would be the first FDA-cleared single-use molecular diagnostic platform able to return lab-quality results within 15 minutes—without requiring any additional lab-quality instruments.
“People with suspected COVID-19 infection and other deadly and costly diseases must know quickly whether they are infected. Our aim is to overcome the barriers of current diagnostic testing with an easy-to-use, rapid, disposable molecular test,” CEO Timothy Still said in a statement.
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According to Still, the Veros platform is expected to commercially launch in 2022.
The system essentially combines the most attractive aspects of PCR and antigen testing for COVID-19. It centers on a portable, hand-held device that uses Sense’s own rapid molecular amplification technology to perform PCR-quality analyses of swabbed patient samples at the point of care in the span of just 15 minutes.Each device can run anywhere from one to several dozen tests at once. After testing is complete, the device is thrown away, eliminating any risk of cross-contamination. Plus, according to Sense, because the self-contained platform doesn’t require any other lab machines or reagents, distributors only need to pay for the cost of each test, making the Veros system more affordable than many other high-quality diagnostics.
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Sense’s expanded financing mirrors the rapid growth of the U.K.-based company itself. Since February of this year, Sense has been on a mad dash to build out its leadership team and R&D capabilities in anticipation of the launch of the Veros platform.
In the former category, Sense kicked off the year by adding new chief financial and commercial officers to its exec team. Those hires were followed in July by Still’s appointment as president, CEO and member of the board of directors.
On the R&D front, in September, Sense announced that it had doubled the size of its facilities by relocating to Oxfordshire’s Abingdon Science Park. The new space vastly ramps up Sense’s molecular discovery and development lab capacity and also adds more office space for the growing team.