PGDx Wins $42M in Financing from Innovatus toward IVD Genome Tests

Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) has won $42 million in financing from Innovatus Capital Partners that the company said will support its strategic initiative to bring regulated in vitro diagnostic (IVD) genome testing to cancer patients and their physicians worldwide.

PGDx specializes in high-throughput, next-generation sequencing and proprietary algorithms to identify alterations in complex cancer genomes. The company’s tests are aimed at helping physicians tailor their treatments according to the specific characteristics of each patient's cancer.

“We are excited to support PGDx's effort to bring new IVD tests to market and expand access to its clinical applications of cancer genomics,” Claes Ekstrom, Managing Director of Innovatus, said yesterday in a statement.

Innovatus is an independent adviser and portfolio management firm with approximately $1.6 billion in assets under management. The firm has provided debt financing to medical device, diagnostic and biotechnology companies that focus on meeting unmet medical needs, improving patient outcomes and reducing overall healthcare expenditures.

The firm in March entered into a debt refinancing agreement to provide a $23 million term loan for blood-based diagnostic test developer Biodesix. And last year, Innovatus inked a debt financing agreement with medical device developer TransEnterix to provide up to $17.0 million in term loans.

“With significant experience in life sciences, Innovatus is an ideal partner for PGDx as we pursue our mission to expand access to cancer genomics through regulated IVD tests worldwide,” PGDx CEO Douglas Ward said in a statement.

Headquartered in Baltimore, PGDx was founded in 2010 by Johns Hopkins University researcher Victor Velculescu, M.D., Ph.D., and Luis Diaz, M.D., a former Johns Hopkins researcher who is now Head of the Division of Solid Tumor Oncology in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. According to PGDx, the two were the first to perform genome-wide sequence analysis of human cancer, with the goal of bringing novel diagnostic approaches to patients with cancer.

The $42 million financing from Innovatus marks the second time this year that PGDx has raised capital. On January 4, the company said it had completed a $75 million Series B financing, with proceeds intended to advance the company’s development of tissue-based and liquid biopsy technologies and products for cancer genomics.

The Series B financing was co-led by new investor Bristol-Myers Squibb and existing investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Other participating investors included Inova Strategic Investments, Co-win Healthcare Fund, Helsinn Investment Fund, Windham Venture Partners, Maryland Venture Fund, and undisclosed investors.