PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aptatek BioSciences, Inc., a developer of in-home health monitoring solutions for patients with chronic disease, announced the completion of a $4 million seed funding round led by hard science investment firm IP Group, Inc., Canterbury Scientific Limited, a leading global OEM developer and supplier of In Vitro Diagnostic (IVD) test consumables, and the National PKU Alliance (NPKUA) also participated in the round.
The funding will fuel the development and clinical validation of the company’s first product that enables critical in-home monitoring of phenylketonuria (PKU). This rare inherited disorder causes the dangerous build-up of the amino acid phenylalanine in the body. It will also enable us to make key hires to expand the team and investigate further applications in chronic kidney disease and medication management.
“We are excited to have strong investors such as IP Group, Inc., who are committed to commercializing breakthrough technology in the hard sciences and Canterbury Scientific, a company focused on high quality product development and manufacturing, to support our product manufacturing and global reach,” said Aptatek CEO Dr. Michael Boyce-Jacino. “We are also honored to have the support of the NPKUA in the important effort to enable patient empowerment in the management of PKU, an inherited metabolic disease affecting development and brain function.”
Clive Seymour, CEO of Canterbury Scientific, stated, “Chronic disease management is a major challenge in healthcare globally. We are delighted to support and help accelerate the opportunity to provide in-home solutions such as the Aptatek platform to help transform disease management to change these patients’ lives.”
Christine Brown, Executive Director of the NPKUA added, “Empowering patients through home monitoring for PKU has been a longtime goal of the PKU patient community, and we are excited to support the Aptatek platform.”
About Aptatek: Aptatek BioSciences, Inc. a spinout from Columbia University, is a point-of-care technology company with a unique, aptamer-based assay chemistry developing products for health testing in home settings.
Currently, diagnosis and monitoring of inborn diseases is performed only in centralized laboratories, which is costly, slow, and inaccessible to millions of people globally. One such disease is phenylketonuria (PKU). Once diagnosed, PKU patients must closely monitor their phenylalanine levels for their entire lifetimes or face severe health challenges. PKU patients have no choice but to visit a hospital or mail-in blood samples to a central lab.
Aptatek’s monitoring device would be game-changing for thousands of people affected by PKU because it provides clinical-grade testing in an easy-to-use, home-based portable device.
