A FILIPINO-LED biotechnology company in the United States has received P10 billion in series C funding to develop and sell a blood-based test matching cancer patients to therapies with the best chance of response.
InterVenn Biosciences received this latter stage startup financing from SoftBank Group, Heritage Provider Network, Irving Investors, and Highside Capital Management.
The funding will be used to develop and sell Dawn, a blood-based test that will help physicians match cancer patients to immune-oncology therapies, the company said in press release on Monday.
Dawn is in early validation, a process done to demonstrate consistent quality, for patients with melanoma as well as pancreatic and lung cancers, while its use for other tumor types is being studied.
InterVenn Chief Executive Officer Aldo Carrascoso is a graduate of Ateneo De Manila University and Babson College, while co-founder Carlito Lebrilla, is a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine.
The InterVenn headquarters and US-regulator certified clinical laboratory are in San Francisco, California.
“One hundred percent of our software is done in the Philippines,” Mr. Carrascoso said.
“Our engineering team in our Pasig City office takes care of the cloud infrastructure, front end, back end, and even security. Information security, information event management. Events like infiltration, penetration testing. We have a full staff that does dev ops, server systems administration.”
InterVenn previously worked on Glori, a test that can differentiate between benign and malignant pelvic tumors in women with 86% accuracy, after receiving P2 billion in venture investment from Genoa Ventures, True Ventures, Amplify Partners, Boost VC, Prado SV, the Ojjeh Family and Anzu Partners.
The company continues to work on studying early-detection blood tests for adenoma, colorectal cancer, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. — Jenina P. Ibañez