MASON, Ohio, May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- AssureRx Health, Inc. today announced the closing of a $12.5 million Series C financing. The personalized medicine company, which provides clinically-relevant information to help physicians select the right drug for individual neuropsychiatric patients, will use the funds to increase commercial activities for its two flagship pharmacogenomic products, GeneSightRx® Psychotropic and GeneSightRx® ADHD, as well as next generation product development activities.
The financing was led by Four Rivers Group and existing investors Claremont Creek Ventures and Sequoia Capital. The financing also included participation of existing investors Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, CincyTech, Allos Ventures, as well as new investors jVen Capital and Alafi Capital. New investors Four Rivers, jVen Capital, and Alafi Capital bring to AssureRx Health further expertise and partnering connections to help AssureRx Health continue building its leadership position in psychiatric pharmacogenomics.
“Our goal is to build the leading clinical informatics company providing pharmacogenomic and other treatment decision support products to help physicians individualize the treatment of patients with neuropsychiatric and other disorders,” said James S. Burns, president and CEO of AssureRx Health. “Proceeds from the Series C financing will be used to expand sales coverage, sponsor multiple clinical studies, and develop new products to help accelerate our leadership position in psychiatric personalized medicine.”
Warren Hogarth, partner at Sequoia Capital, said, “AssureRx products have the potential to change the way physicians select the appropriate medications for each of their patients. AssureRx is at the cutting edge of providing treatment decision support products for a very large global psychiatric market. We believe that AssureRx Health is building a world class company.”
John Steuart, managing director of Claremont Creek Ventures said, “AssureRx has enormous potential to lead the transformation of neuropsychiatric care toward personalized patient treatment. GeneSightRx Psychotropic, GeneSightRx ADHD and future pharmacogenomic products hold the promise for faster, better patient outcomes and less costly care. We believe that AssureRx products have the potential for significant adoption by the psychiatric community, leading ultimately to incorporating pharmacogenomics into routine psychiatric practice guidelines.”
From a simple cheek swab, the GeneSightRx technology measures and analyzes clinically important genetic variants that determine how a patient’s unique genetic make-up affects his or her ability to tolerate or effectively respond to psychotropic medications. Patient-specific genetic information obtained through GeneSightRx can assist physicians in the process of selecting appropriate antidepressant and antipsychotic medications for individual patients.
About Claremont Creek Ventures
Claremont Creek Ventures (CCV) is a seed and early stage venture firm. CCV invests in digital healthcare, energy technology, payments/commerce, and online businesses. Utilizing the firm’s proprietary life-cycle venturing program, Claremont Creek Ventures also partners with entrepreneurs and institutions, including UC Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore Labs, Stanford University and UC Davis. Claremont Creek has more than $300 million in capital under management in two funds. CCV’s digital healthcare investments in addition to AssureRx Health include Genalyte, GeneWeave, GigaGen, Fluxion Biosciences, Natera, Tibion and Zipline Medical. For more information, visit www.claremontcreek.com.
About Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to founders of startups who want to turn business ideas into enduring companies. As the “Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs”, Sequoia Capital’s Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of NetApp, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of NVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube, Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Networks, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Omar Hamoui of Admob, Steve Streit of Green Dot and Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit www.sequoiacap.com/us.
About AssureRx Health
AssureRx Health, Inc. is a personalized medicine company specializing in pharmacogenomics and is dedicated to helping physicians determine the right drug for individual patients suffering from neuropsychiatric and other disorders. The GeneSightRx analysis is based on pharmacogenomics, the study of the genetic factors that influence an individual’s response to drug treatments, FDA approved manufacturers’ drug labels, scientific and clinical peer-reviewed publications, and proven pharmacology. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Mayo Clinic are equity holders and technology collaborators. To learn more about pharmacogenomics and GeneSightRx, please click here.
Contacts:
James S. Burns
President & CEO
AssureRx Health, Inc.
(513) 234-0510
e-mail: jburns@assurerxhealth.com
Troy May
Marketing Communications Manager
AssureRx Health, Inc.
(513) 234-0510
e-mail: tmay@assurerxhealth.com
