INDIANAPOLIS & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Strand Diagnostics, LLC, maker of the know error® system, and NantWorks, LLC announced that they have entered into an agreement whereby Strand will receive up to $30 million in funding from NantWorks, LLC over the next 3 years. The money will be used to accelerate the company’s growth, scale its operations infrastructure, and expand sales and marketing efforts.
“This investment is a very important next step for the growth of our business,” said Strand Diagnostics President, Ken Cerney. “NantWorks and Dr. Soon-Shiong provide additional resources, experience, and relationships that will help to grow our platform more quickly.”
Co-founder Dr. Peter Knapp added, “We are excited to have this relationship with NantWorks as DNA Specimen Provenance Assignment - or DSPA testing - increasingly becomes the standard of care for the diagnosis of cancer and other conditions. DSPA testing completes the cancer diagnostic testing cycle to provide patients a complete and accurate diagnosis, allowing physicians to proceed with the best treatment for the appropriate patient.”
Launched in 2009, the know error® system delivers a new standard of patient safety and accuracy to the diagnostic testing cycle. Using bar coding, forensic principles, and DNA matching, the know error® system ensures that surgical biopsy samples being evaluated belong exclusively to the patient being diagnosed. Less than three years after the company’s launch, hundreds of physicians in a variety of specialties have incorporated the know error® system as their standard for patient care. Currently, the most popular offerings are the know error® systems for breast biopsy and prostate biopsy.
“The era of quantitative genomic medicine is upon us. Clinical decision support utilizing gene and bioinformatics will transform healthcare as we know it today. The Know Error founding team has laid the groundwork for an innovative system that improves patient safety and diagnostic accuracy,” said NantWorks Chairman and CEO, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. “Their products fit directly into our vision of quantitative medicine and next-generation personalized medicine.”
This announcement marks NantWork’s second healthcare investment in Indiana in just two months, providing additional opportunities for Indiana’s growing life sciences industry.
“With the strength of our life sciences industry and a first-class work force, it’s no surprise that NantWorks has chosen Indiana as the home for another investment,” said Governor Mitch Daniels. “With its established executive leadership and commitment to healthcare innovation, NantWorks has all the right ingredients to flourish in the Hoosier State.”
To learn more about Know Error and the know error® system, visit: www.knowerror.com.
About Strand Diagnostics
Strand Diagnostics developed and markets the know error® system which utilizes bar coding, forensic chain-of-custody principles, and DNA testing (also known as DNA Specimen Provenance Assignment or “DSPA” testing) to complete the diagnostic testing cycle before initiating treatment.
Having conducted prospective DSPA testing on tens of thousands of patients since 2009, Strand Diagnostics has documented that approximately 1% of cases receiving a positive cancer diagnosis are subject to undetected tissue transposition or contamination which could lead to a cancer diagnosis being assigned to the wrong patient. Including the complimentary patients who, therefore, may have received a false negative diagnosis, this means that up to 2% of all tissue biopsies could result in an incorrect diagnosis unless DSPA testing is incorporated into the diagnostic testing cycle.
Available for a diverse range of tissue types, the know error® system brings new levels of patient safety and accuracy to the diagnostic testing cycle for breast, prostate, and other cancers. Since the company’s launch in 2009, hundreds of physicians in a variety of specialties, including urology, radiology, GI, and oncology, have adopted the know error® system as their standard of patient care for diagnosing patients with cancer. For more information, see www.knowerror.com
Strand Diagnostics’ forensic division, Strand Analytical Laboratories, supports law enforcement agencies with forensic DNA testing services.
About NantWorks
NantWorks, LLC is a company founded and led by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. Its core mission is to converge a wide range of technologies to transform scientific research and healthcare. It is building an integrated evidence-based, genomically-informed, personalized approach to the delivery of care and the development of next generation diagnostics and therapeutics. For more information, see http://www.nantworks.com.
Contact:
Know Error
Mike Harmon
Cell Phone: 317.319.0093
Email: mharmon@knowerror.com
or
NantWorks
Jen Hodson
Phone: 310.405.7539
Email: jhodson@nantworks.com
