AdvanDx, a Woburn, MA, molecular diagnostic company, has closed a $15 million Series C financing from new and existing investors. The five-year-old private company will use the money to accelerate commercialization of its molecular-based, in vitro diagnostic tests for infectious diseases.
AdvaDx’s two main tests are PNA FISH and EVIGENE. Both provide rapid identification results (available in hours instead of days) for bacteria and yeast to support appropriate antibiotic therapy.
PNA FISH, for which AdvaDx in May signed an exclusive licensing agreement with French diagnostics firm bioMérieux, uses fluorescent-labeled peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes in a highly sensitive and specific 2.5 hours fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay targeting the species-specific ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in microbes. The technology allows for rapid and accurate identification of bacteria and yeast directly from positive blood cultures. It is available for in vitro diagnostic use in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
EVIGENE is a sandwich hybridization assay that uses nucleic acid probes to target specific gene sequences within microbial DNA. The technology allows for rapid identification of specific antibiotic resistance, virulence and toxicity gene markers in microbes. It’s available for research use only in the U.S. and for in vitro diagnostic use in Europe.
The PNA FISH distribution partnership and this latest financing — which was participated in by bioMérieux and existing investors LD Pensions and SLS Venture — provide AdvanDx with significant cash flow.
According to AdvanDx, every year, 350,000 patients contract bloodstream infections, causing over 90,000 unnecessary deaths and significant costs to the U.S. healthcare system. The company’s studies indicate that implementation of its diagnostics can lead to a significant reduction in ICU-related mortality due to Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections and reduce median hospital costs by up to $19,441 per patient.