VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Canexia Health today announced a new financing round from PacBridge Capital Partners (HK) Limited to propel the company’s long-term global growth and accelerate its roadmap to make cancer testing for treatment selection and monitoring accessible to all cancer patients. The investment signals Canexia Health’s record-breaking growth in 2020 to date, with new customer collaborations and studies, product enhancements, and reimbursement progress.
Highlights include:
● New collaborations. In the first half of 2020, the company increased commercial partner agreements by 65%. One new collaborator is Genolife, a private clinic that provides access to personalized genetic tests and genetic counselling services. Genolife will offer Canexia Health’s circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay, Follow It, in Quebec. Additional new commercial partner agreements include AstraZeneca Canada, the Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association (EORLA), and Queen’s University. All are involved in Project ACTT, and EORLA and Queens University will adopt Canexia’s technology transfer model to bring ctDNA testing in-house. Project ACTT is a CAD $2.59M initiative led by Canexia Health and supported by Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster to deploy and enhance Follow It for 2,000 patients during COVID-19 as an alternative to surgical tissue biopsies.
● Monitoring studies. Monitoring is a $15B market opportunity in the US alone. Adding to its portfolio of monitoring studies, Canexia Health is collaborating with Exactis Innovation, a pan-Canadian Networks Centres of Excellence comprising 14 oncology centers. The research study, led by Dr. Simon Turcotte at the Centre de Recherche Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, will deploy Follow It to analyze ctDNA and investigate non-invasive early detection of treatment failure in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who are undergoing systemic chemotherapy and liver resection. Following definitive surgery, disease recurrence is seen in 50-75% of patients within 2 years, highlighting the importance of recurrence risk prediction and disease monitoring in this patient population.
● Product enhancements. Canexia Health continues to expand the genomic content of its assays, including MSI and CNV content, as well as recently releasing updates to the Canexia Health Fusions panel. The company has also improved the sensitivity of its liquid biopsy assays for use in monitoring and leveraged tens of thousands of processed samples to improve its AI and machine learning algorithms.
● Reimbursement progress. Via partner Lab Genomics, Follow It has received a unique Z code, representing a key reimbursement milestone with the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
● Corporate rebrand and growth. In July, the company rebranded from Contextual Genomics to Canexia Health to reflect the company’s deep focus on cancer patients and on building a community nexus to make precision oncology affordable and accessible. The company has also increased its full-time workforce by 35% since March 2020 with the addition of new hires in the laboratory, as well as in computational science, software, business development, and marketing.
“This has been a year of incredible growth for Canexia Health. Since the beginning of 2020, we have welcomed new customers and collaborators, and we are well on the path to democratize how oncologists gain information about cancer treatment selection and monitoring,” said Michael Ball, CEO of Canexia Health. “Further, we have built a clinically focused molecular test specifically for those who want to bring this technology in-house. The faster you can get an individual on targeted therapy, the better their outcomes are likely to be. Building in-house capabilities and thus making cancer testing more accessible, that’s really the focus for our company moving forward.”
Canexia Health
Canexia Health (formerly Contextual Genomics) makes high-quality cancer genomic information accessible and affordable with our clinically-validated assays, informatics, and support. Our suite of genomics-based cancer tests is clinically actionable and cost-effective, designed to improve cancer treatment and monitoring. With our extensive scientific experience, specialized genomics-based tests, and support from pharmaceutical and diagnostic partners, we are leading the shift towards precision oncology.
