1Drop Diagnostics Secures $4.25M Series A Funding to Advance Portable Blood Testing Platform

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on October 31, 2018, local time, the Swiss cutting-edge life sciences company 1Drop Diagnostics (hereinafter referred to as “1Drop”) announced it had secured $4.25 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Venturelab and received support from Dr. Hans-Peter Strebel, an investor affiliated with Swiss Startup Group; Beat Schillig, a young entrepreneur at the IFJ Institute; and Jean-Philippe de Toledo of Pharmacie Principale.

1Drop’s flagship product is a micro-diagnostic panel embedded with a biochip, which can generate a user’s health report from a single drop of blood within fifteen minutes. 1Drop stated that this round of financing will be used for clinical studies of the product, regulatory certification applications, development of EHR integration, and enhancement of the biochip’s learning capabilities.

Image source: mobihealthnews website

This product helps users avoid the hassle of visiting fixed laboratories for health monitoring, enabling blood diagnostics in a less invasive and more personalized manner.

Dr. Luc Gervais, Founder and CEO of 1Drop, stated in a press release: “Enabling patients to undergo medical diagnostics and access their results anytime, anywhere represents a significant opportunity to transform the healthcare industry. 1Drop has addressed inefficiencies in healthcare by eliminating the need for invasive venipuncture to collect large blood volumes, as well as removing traditional steps such as shipping samples to laboratories, manual analysis, waiting for results, and contacting physicians.”

In recent years, various portable blood testing methods have gained popularity, as people seek ways to enable patients to “escape the laboratory.” Among the key players are industry giants, such as the prominent U.S. science company reported by VCBeat today.LabCorp, announced the launch of its mail-order D2C blood testing service yesterday. Also Seventh Sense Biosystems, Everlywell, and myLabBox and other companies are also seekingSeeking Development of New Home Blood Testing Methods.

Image source: finsmes website

In contrast, mail-order testing methods, which still require samples to be sent to laboratories for analysis, may offer advantages in the breadth of disease categories detected and the precision of test results, but they entail longer turnaround times and more complex processes. On the other hand, 1Drop’s portable blood testing product is relatively more flexible—less invasive, more efficient, and offering greater patient autonomy—but it faces greater challenges regarding the accuracy of its biochip-based blood tests and the breadth of detectable disease categories.

In addition,1DropThe proposed multiplexed diagnostic solutions targeting proteins, nucleic acids, and peptides can also be utilized for developing new therapies, disease research, and clinical diagnostic testing.

1Drop is currently collaborating with three pharmaceutical companies to develop companion diagnostic products for candidate drugs targeting heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and glucose metabolism.

Dr. Hans-Peter Strebel publicly stated in a press release, “The diagnostics industry is on the verge of a major breakthrough. As one of the pioneers leading this wave, 1Drop has not only transformed the methods of medical diagnosis but also revolutionized the practice of precision medicine. We are honored to partner with such a company.”

1Drop, founded in 2012 and headquartered in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, is a cutting-edge medical diagnostics and life sciences company. By integrating state-of-the-art technologies—including microfluidics, biochemistry, photonics, and information technology—it has developed high-performance point-of-care diagnostic devices. With this latest round of financing, the company has raised a total of approximately $8.1 million.