SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire - 07/22/10) - Integrated Diagnostics, an emerging leader in personalized diagnostics founded by Dr. Leroy Hood, today announced that the company has made substantial progress, triggering a $10 million second tranche of its Series A financing. The funds will be used to advance the development, validation and commercialization of its blood-based proteomic diagnostics programs. The company also announced that concurrent with the second tranche, BioTechCube (BTC) Luxembourg, a newly formed Luxembourg-based investment company, has joined the Series A group of investors and that Patrizia Luchetta, chair of BTC, will join the company’s Board.
“Achieving the second tranche is a measure of the progress Integrated Diagnostics has made in advancing its novel diagnostics platform and in identifying and validating urgent unmet diagnostic needs where this unique technology can have the greatest impact,” said Luchetta, who, in addition to her position at BTC, heads the Life Sciences and Technologies Department at the Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. “The second tranche is also a demonstration of the confidence that the company’s investors have in the outstanding team at Integrated Diagnostics.”
Integrated Diagnostics uses genomic and proteomic techniques to identify and detect organ-specific blood proteins that appear at the earliest stage of disease. This work is based on Dr. Hood’s groundbreaking research in protein blood markers at The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), which established ongoing research collaborations with the University of Luxembourg in 2008. In 2009 Integrated Diagnostics became the first commercial enterprise to arise from this partnership.
“Our access to the research arising from the University of Luxembourg’s partnership with ISB has been an important ingredient in our success to-date,” said Dr. Albert Luderer, CEO of Integrated Diagnostics. “We are very proud that BTC Luxembourg wishes to join us as an investor. The funds from the second tranche will allow us to accelerate the development and validation of the next generation of blood-based diagnostics.”
With today’s announcement, Integrated Diagnostics’s Board will now include:
* David Barker, Ph.D., Board chair, Integrated Diagnostics * Jim Heath, Ph.D., co-founder, Integrated Diagnostics & professor of chemistry, California Institute of Technology * Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder, Integrated Diagnostics & co-founder, ISB * Patrizia Luchetta, M.A., chair, BTC Luxembourg * Albert Luderer, Ph.D., CEO, Integrated Diagnostics * Arnold Oronsky, Ph.D., general partner, InterWest Partners
Integrated Diagnostics raised a $30 million Series A round of financing in September 2009. The round was led by InterWest Partners, a diversified venture capital firm, and joined by The Wellcome Trust and dievini Hopp BioTech holding. In line with expectations from the first tranche, BTC has joined the Series A investor group and now holds all of dievini’s previous investment in Integrated Diagnostics. Concurrently, the company announced that Dr. Friedrich von Bohlen, managing partner of dievini, has stepped down from the Board.
“I want to thank Friedrich for his dedicated service to the company,” said Dr. Luderer. “We are very excited to welcome Patrizia to the Board; her knowledge of the European market and experience in the diagnostics field will be invaluable to Integrated Diagnostics’s success.”
About Integrated Diagnostics
The mission of Integrated Diagnostics is to leverage powerful emerging technologies in the development of diagnostic products and measurement technologies that enable physicians and patients to manage complex and important diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s through blood tests that can monitor tens to hundreds of disease markers simultaneously. The company is developing a pipeline of game-changing diagnostic products that enable the diagnosis and prognosis of a variety of diseases. The company is based on the concept of a systems view of disease where pathophysiology arises from disease-perturbed networks of proteins, genes and other molecules. For more information visit http://www.integrated-diagnostics.com. Contact:
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Eliot Dobris (415) 902-1241
