VANCOUVER, British Columbia & MONTRÉAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Imagia Cybernetics, an AI-healthcare company that accelerates oncology solutions generated from real world data, today announced its merger with Canexia Health. Canexia is an oncology innovator that streamlines complex cancer genomic information which allows oncologists to identify optimal treatment selection and patient monitoring. The merger includes C$20 million funding with participation from: BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund, Desjardins Capital, and PacBridge Capital. Combined, Imagia and Canexia will increase access to precision oncology at the community level. In addition to working with four leading pharmaceutical companies, Imagia and Canexia are integrated with 20 hospital systems and reference labs around the world. Their expertise in genomics, oncology, artificial intelligence, and informatics will enable health systems to bring testing in-house, delivering precision oncology to patients no matter where they live.
While 85 percent of all cancer treatments in the United States are administered at community cancer centers and local hospitals, only 15 percent of patients are routinely screened for targeted treatment selection that can improve outcomes threefold1. The new company, Imagia Canexia Health, improves accessibility through cost-effective local testing, thereby reducing expenses and generating faster results. This integrated solution leverages AI-based informatics for treatment selection, patient monitoring, and provides clinical laboratories support to bring testing in-house. The result is a new ability to integrate patient clinical and genomic data which achieves more effective treatment decisions by oncologists.
“Combating cancer is what Imagia set out to accomplish through advanced AI technology, and merging with Canexia speeds up our momentum to realize that goal,” said Imagia CEO Geralyn Ochab, who will lead the new company. Ochab spent over 20 years on technology’s cutting-edge in healthcare creating durable business partnerships in previous roles at Toshiba, GE Healthcare, and Resonant Medical. During that time, she orchestrated market expansions, built high performance teams, and spearheaded full scale corporate restructures. “Imagia’s EVIDENS platform, with its distributed model providing onco-clinical solutions generated from real world data, is critical to our joint ecosystem’s ability to provide earlier treatment selection and recurrence monitoring.”
Aligning resources, the merger now enables expanded access to precision-guided cancer management. Imagia’s robust data insights technology preserves cancer healthcare data privacy via federated learning and Canexia’s end-to-end solution tests, validates, and delivers the analysis directly to the oncologist. Together, they will provide faster and more comprehensive insights.
“Targeted cancer therapies transform access to cancer treatment, patient outcomes, and health system effectiveness. Through Imagia Canexia Health these precision treatments can be available to physicians and patients around the world,” said Canexia Health Board Chair Sue Paish, who will also chair the new company. “This merger with Imagia will greatly enhance access to life saving cancer treatments and improve health equity.”
“This merger realizes new revenue streams from integrated workflow solutions, and more services that bring therapeutics to where patients need them most,” said Michael Ball, Canexia Health CEO.
“Combining two advanced technology companies to bring affordable access to the best cancer treatments closer to the patient is exactly the kind of opportunity that we want to invest in,” said Michelle Scarborough, a Managing Partner at BDC's Women in Technology Venture Fund.
The transaction is expected to close at the end of February, subject to shareholder approval.
About Imagia Cybernetics
Imagia, an artificial intelligence and healthcare company, develops digital medical innovations that aim to improve the health of cancer patients and those with other heavy-burden diseases. Through its collaborative ecosystem, Imagia EVIDENS™ enables hospitals, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and diagnostic companies around the world to access and utilize healthcare data while preserving data privacy. Headquartered in Montréal, Imagia’s mission is to unlock the potential of data across all organizations to achieve collaborative, medical breakthroughs. www.imagia.com
About Canexia Health
Canexia Health 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. www.canexiahealth.com
1 Gutierrez, Martin E., et al. “Genomic Profiling of Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer in Community Settings: Gaps and Opportunities.” Clinical Lung Cancer, 13 Apr. 2017, https://www.clinical-lung-cancer.com/article/S1525-7304(17)30109-2/fulltext.
