CLYZ Labs, an award-winning early-stage cancer diagnostics company, today announced that the first clinical trial involving its innovative Cancertain™ test has secured all regulatory approvals following a seed investment from the GM&C Life Sciences Fund, managed by Catapult Ventures.
Manchester UK, 15th August 2018 – CLYZ Labs, an award-winning early-stage cancer diagnostics company, today announced that the first clinical trial involving its innovative Cancertain™ test has secured all regulatory approvals following a seed investment from the GM&C Life Sciences Fund, managed by Catapult Ventures. Premier Corporate Finance supported CLYZ Labs in preparation for this fund-raising.
CLYZ Labs, founded in 2017, are developing the Cancertain™ Assay as a service to select the best drug therapy for personalised cancer treatment. CLYZ Labs will combine information on drug sensitivity of the patient’s own tumor cells using innovative 3D Cell culture techniques along with biomarker and treatment guidelines to provide a personalised treatment recommendation. This is expected to increase life expectancy and reduce costs by selecting the best treatment option for an individual. CLYZ Labs has previously received funding from individual clinicians under SEIS and EIS Schemes, which supported pre-clinical development of the technology. The latest investment from GM&C Life Sciences Fund will enable the company to further optimise and validate the Cancertain™ Assay in patients with lung cancer and to generate much needed evidence in a clinical setting.
Dr Gareth King, Life Science Partner at Catapult Ventures, commented “Highly personalised cancer therapy is fast becoming the standard of care and I’ve been very impressed with the focus of CLYZ Labs team on improving outcomes for patients with cancer. CLYZ Labs is well positioned to provide a fully integrated service to support clinicians to provide the best treatment and care for patients. I look forward to the successful conclusion of this clinical trial.”
Dr Himanshu Kataria, Director of CLYZ Labs, said “Lung cancer remains a major health problem with >65% patients dying within one year of diagnosis. We at CLYZ Labs are focused to ensure that every lung cancer patient gets the best chance at cancer treatment in the future. We welcome this initial investment from GM&C Life Sciences Fund, which will help us complete initial clinical validation of Cancertain™ Assay. Precision Medicine Tests require robust clinical and health economic evaluation before being made available to every patient under the NHS. We look forward to continue to work with the GM&C Life Sciences Fund and other investors to bring Cancertain™ Assay to every lung cancer patient in future.”
Mr Rupert Lewis, Partner at Premier Corporate Finance, said “We are delighted to be able to support Himanshu in his quest to improve cancer care within the current healthcare environment in the UK and international markets. I look forward to assisting with the future success of CLYZ Labs”.
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Contact:
Dr Gareth King, Life Science Partner
E: Gareth.King@catapult-ventures.com
T: 01625 344300 M: 07720 051988
Notes to Editors:
About CLYZ Labs
CLYZ Labs are developing a testing service to select the best drug therapy for personalised cancer treatment. CLYZ Labs will combine information on the sensitivity of the patients own tumor cells to a range of drugs along with biomarker and treatment guidelines to provide a personalised treatment recommendation. This is expected to increase life expectancy and reduce costs by selecting the best treatment option for an individual. Highly personalised cancer therapy is fast becoming the standard of care and CLYZ Labs are well positioned to provide a fully integrated service to support clinicians to provide the best treatment and care for patients.
About GM&C Life Sciences Fund
Managed by Catapult Ventures, the GM&C Life Sciences Fund is a seed and early stage venture capital fund targeting life sciences businesses located in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire & Warrington region.
The Fund is the result of a collaboration between Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Cheshire East Council, and Manchester Science Partnerships and can be invested in ‘Life Science’ businesses across the following sectors:
- Pharmaceuticals
- Biotechnology
- Diagnostics
- Life Science contract research organisations (CRO)
- Healthcare technologies
- Medical devices
With contributions from both private and public-sector partners, the size of the Fund, at launch, is around £31m. Full details can be found at: www.gmclifesciencesfund.com
About Catapult Ventures
Catapult Ventures is an independent venture capital fund manager that has been investing in UK businesses since 2002. Catapult’s owners have operated discrete funds on behalf of public and private sector investors totalling c. £130m, including the GM&C Life Sciences Fund.
Since 2015 Catapult has a track record of 10 exits averaging 4x cash returns, including Accutronics (9.1x), Lumora (5x), Oxford Cryosystems (5.2x), Systems Integration (4.9x), Monica Healthcare (3.5x), BWB Consulting (3x*), Hangar7 (3x) and Haemostatix (3x*). [* expected]
Catapult Ventures and Catapult Ventures Group are trading names of Catapult Ultimate Holdings Ltd, which is the ultimate holding company of Catapult Venture Managers Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
