BC Platforms Secures $15M Series C Funding Led by IQVIA, Announces Strategic Collaboration to Advance Genomic and Clinical Data Integration

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on December 18, 2019, local time, BC Platforms, a Zurich-headquartered company specializing in genomic data management and analysis, announced the completion of its $15 million Series C financing round and the establishment of a strategic partnership with healthcare analytics giant IQVIA. IQVIA, headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, led this round of investment, with participation from the Debiopharm Innovation Fund and Finnish investment firm Tesi.

BC Platforms and IQVIA stated that, through this financing and collaboration, the two companies will jointly develop data-driven technologies to integrate genomic and clinical data, thereby supporting biomedical research.

In addition, the collaboration between the two companies includes technology sharing. BC Platforms will directly provide its technology to IQVIA’s E360 Genomics, an integrated genomic clinical software solution within IQVIA’s established E360 data mining platform. The two companies stated that this will support a federated genomic analysis network designed to protect patient privacy.

“We believe that, leveraging IQVIA’s deep medical expertise in big data, we can accelerate the implementation of precision medicine initiatives to benefit patients,” said Tero Silvola, CEO of BC Platforms, in a statement. “This financing and commercial partnership will help accelerate the growth of our capabilities in serving and connecting healthcare and life sciences customers, as well as assist us in linking data partners within a global, interoperable federated network.”

Rob Kotchie, President of Solutions at IQVIA, added, “Deriving insights from integrated clinical genomic data is a growing need among our life sciences and healthcare clients.” He also noted that combining BC Platforms’ automated workflow technology with the IQVIA Real-World Technology Platform would “enable customers to conduct novel research and uncover new insights, thereby advancing healthcare.”

BC Platforms was founded in Helsinki in 1997, with the vision of establishing a globally leading healthcare and industry analytics platform by 2020, providing access to diverse genomic and clinical data, as well as biospecimens, from more than 5 million subjects across a global network of biobanks. To date, the company has established partnerships with approximately 100 enterprise-level healthcare systems and biobanks in 25 countries, and recently opened a base in Singapore to lead its growing business in Asia.

(Compiled by Ning Chen)