Quanterix raises $46m with goal of adding 60 new assays
Quanterix Corporation announced yesterday that it has secured $46m in Series D funding from both new and existing investors. The new funds will allow Quanterix to build on its recent growth over the past two years.
“This investment is critical in accelerating our research across various therapeutic areas including, oncology, neurology, cardiology, inflammation and infectious disease,” Qaunterix CEO, Kevin Hrusovsky, told us. “With these proceeds, we are hoping to add an additional 60 assays by the end of the year, which will significantly improve our customer’s ability to perform research and ultimately detect new biomarkers to further disease diagnosis.”
As biopharma-reporter previously reported, the company’s flagship platform, Simoa, allows researchers to study diseases in great detail and for drug developers to analyze biochemical pathways.
While part of the funds will be used to expand the assay menu for protein and nucleic acid biomarkers, it will also help the company develop a bench-top version of the Simoa platform, with the goal of making it more accessible and robust.
“It’s a critical first step towards developing a point of care device, which will dramatically affect the accessibility of our testing, allowing us to transform today’s reactive ‘sick care’ into true preventative health care,” added Hrusovsky.
Looking further into 2016 and the years ahead, the company plans on focusing new medical studies and research around several therapeutic categories, specifically cardiology and oncology.
“We have already proven our ability to detect individual prostate cancer cells, leading to earlier and less invasive diagnosis of the disease … but we are also working towards new studies on breast cancer, for instance,” explained Hrusovsky. “We are also looking to continue studies around identifying new biomarkers that can used across several different therapeutic areas.”
The company also announced expansion into several prominent APAC markets, including Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, earlier this year. As part of this expansion, Quanterix named Cold Spring Biotech as its official and exclusive distributor in China.
“What we are seeing is a huge, unmet demand for our Simoa technology, especially in the APAC region,” added Hrusovsky, who explained that China in particular, has seen double digit growth in biotech, becoming one of the fastest nations to adopt new biotechnologies.
“This influx in capital from many global investors, will not only give us the assets needed to continue to reach these growing biotechnology markets, where the demand for our instruments is constantly increasing,” added Hruskovky, “but in many cases it will also give us a local partner.”
