Inivata Secures $52.6M Series B Financing to Advance Liquid Biopsy Platform for Precision Cancer Care

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned from foreign media that Inivata, a leading company in the field of liquid biopsy, recently announced the completion of a $52.6 million Series B financing round. The funds are expected to be used for further development of the company’s InVision liquid biopsy testing platform.

Investors in this funding round include existing investors Woodford Patient Capital Trust, IP Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation, as well as new investor RT Ventures.

Inivata is a liquid biopsy technology R&D company headquartered in Massachusetts, USA, dedicated to developing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis applications to improve detection technologies and treatment regimens in the field of oncology. The company has developed TAm-Seq technology, which enables the collection, detection, and analysis of cell-free ctDNA genomic material from blood samples of cancer patients. It is reported that the company completed a $31.5 million Series A financing round in 2016.

Inivata operates CLIA-certified laboratories in both North Carolina and Cambridge, UK. Its proprietary liquid biopsy platform, InVision, utilizes a Tagged Amplicon Sequencing (TAm-Seq) method licensed from Cancer Research UK (CRUK). This technology enables amplification and deep sequencing of genomic regions spanning thousands of bases across fragmented DNA. By leveraging Inivata’s proprietary algorithms and databases for analysis, physicians can generate comprehensive diagnostic reports that inform personalized oncology treatment plans for patients.

It is reported that Inivata’s flagship product is a liquid biopsy platform called InVision First-Lung. Based on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), the platform employs an enhanced version of the company’s proprietary TAm-Seq method to perform next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis of genomic alterations across 36 commonly mutated genes, including single nucleotide variants (SNVs), copy number variations (CNVs), insertions and deletions (InDels), and structural variants (fusions). As early as September 24, 2018, at the World Conference on Lung Cancer, Inivata announced the results of its prospective clinical validation study for the lung liquid biopsy test. In early March this year, InVision First-Lung was included in the U.S. Medicare coverage by Palmetto GBA, meaning that all patients undergoing liquid biopsy with InVision First-Lung will receive insurance reimbursement.

Clive Morris, CEO of Inivata, stated, “Although advances in targeted therapy have greatly expanded treatment options for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), conventional tissue biopsy techniques cannot accurately detect small amounts of circulating tumor DNA in the blood. Our InVision First-Lung will provide more NSCLC patients with treatment regimens matched to targeted therapies.” Currently, InVision First-Lung is available on the U.S. market and has received Medicare coverage determination for advanced NSCLC.

According to foreign media reports, Inivata’s liquid biopsy technology will also be applied to test patients for drug resistance.

Woodford Patient Capital Trust is a UK-based investment trust established in 2015, dedicated to providing long-term investment to domestic enterprises. The fund is managed by Woodford Investment Management, led by Neil Woodford.

IP Group is a UK-headquartered venture capital firm that primarily provides funding to technology companies. The firm has also established partnerships with the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, the University of Southampton, and King’s College London.

Cambridge Innovation Capital is a UK-headquartered private equity firm dedicated to investing in high-growth technology companies and the healthcare sector.

Johnson & Johnson Innovation is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, focusing on providing early-stage research funding, seed funding, and equity investment services to enterprises.

RT Ventures is a venture capital firm headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, dedicated to providing enterprises with a range of services including investment advisory, application development, and fund custody.

(Compiled by: Feng Yutong)