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PinkDx Launches to Pursue Better Diagnostics for Women's Health
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By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro
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Good day. After 15 years in leadership roles at Veracyte, a cancer-diagnostics company she co-founded, Bonnie Anderson has struck out on her own as co-founder and chief executive of PinkDx, a women’s-health startup seeking to improve diagnosis of gynecological cancers.
Anderson launched Veracyte in 2008 and was chief executive until mid-2021, when she handed off those duties and served as the company’s executive chair until 2023. Veracyte has a market capitalization of $1.54 billion on the strength of diagnostics such as Afirma, a genomic test used to help patients avoid unneeded thyroid surgery.
Anderson’s new company, Daly City, Calif.-based PinkDx, aims to shorten the diagnostic odyssey many women undergo when they develop general symptoms such as bloating and pelvic pain that could signal gynecological cancer. The company, which has raised $40 million in Series A financing led by Catalio Capital Management and the Production Board, will research potential new diagnostic options for these diseases.
Anderson said she is focusing on women’s health because of the range of unmet medical needs women experience throughout their lives, which in addition to gynecological cancers include areas such as endometriosis, infertility and menopausal and postmenopausal care.
“When you talk to women about this, they just start shaking their heads, we all get it,” Anderson said. “The area is ripe for innovation.”
And now on to the news...
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Araris Biotech is developing antibody-drug conjugates carrying two different drugs to improve efficacy and overcome cancer resistence. ARARIS
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Targeted cancer therapy. Biotechnology startups are seeking to improve a type of guided-missile treatment for cancer attracting increased interest from top pharmaceutical companies.
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Conventional chemotherapy affects healthy as well as cancerous cells. Antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, use antibodies to guide chemotherapy drugs to cancers. The goal is to expose more of the medicine to tumors and less to healthy tissue.
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The idea of linking an antibody to a chemotherapy drug is decades old. But improvements in areas such as linker technology have led to greater success in clinical trials and regulatory approvals of several new ADCs recently.
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Scientific and commercial success has spurred acquisitions and venture investment. In April, drugmaker Genmab agreed to buy venture-backed ADC-developer ProfoundBio, for $1.8 billion, and startup Endeavor BioMedicines, whose pipeline includes a potential ADC treatment, closed a $132.5 million venture financing.
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$1.8 Billion
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The amount drugmaker Genmab agreed to pay in April to acquire antibody-drug conjugate startup ProfoundBio.
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A Yeast-Like Bacteria Can Cut Carbon Emissions
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Airlines are seeking sustainable sources of fuel. Steel producers are looking to reduce their operating emissions. And sports-apparel makers are aiming to cut the volume of plastic in clothing. One discovery could help them all: A yeast-like bacteria in rabbit droppings, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business reports. In Chicago, biotechnology firm LanzaTech says it can take carbon emissions and turn them into ethanol—a chemical that can be used to make sustainable fuels as well as plastics—using the bacteria Clostridium autoethanogenum.
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AI Startup CoreWeave Nearly Triples Valuation to $19 Billion
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CoreWeave, a cloud-computing startup backed by Nvidia, nearly tripled its valuation to $19 billion in a new funding round that highlights booming demand for the cutting-edge systems that power artificial intelligence, WSJ reports. The $1.1 billion funding round was led by Coatue, and follows a round about five months ago that valued seven-year-old CoreWeave at $7 billion. The New Jersey-based company rents out chips housed in data centers across the U.S. that customers use to create and deploy AI systems.
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People
Cancer diagnostics startup Foresight Diagnostics appointed David Kurtz to the post of chief medical officer and head of research.
Exits
Harmony Biosciences Holdings acquired Epygenix Therapeutics, a company developing drugs to treat rare forms of genetic epilepsy in childhood, for an initial $35 million in cash.
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Enlaza Therapeutics, a La Jolla, Calif.-based developer of covalent protein therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases, scored $100 million in Series A funding from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Samsara BioCapital.
Qlaris Bio, a Dedham, Mass.-based startup developing novel treatments for ophthalmic diseases, closed a $24 million Series B round from investors including Canaan.
Vitestro, an autonomous blood draw technology developer based in The Netherlands, picked up a $22 million investment co-led by Sonder Capital and NYBC Ventures.
Infinitopes, a U.K.-based cancer vaccine startup, completed a £12.8 million seed round led by Octopus Ventures.
Remepy, a combination therapy startup, closed a $10 million seed investment led by NFX.
Piction Health, a Boston-based virtual dermatology clinic, has secured a total of $6 million from Argon Ventures and others.
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Oleksandr Biliaiev lives in Dnipro, Ukraine, with his wife, Anna Stasiuk.
PHOTO: JOSEPH SYWENKYJ FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The FDA and gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (JAMA Network)
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China’s controversial plan for brain-computer interfaces (Wired)
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The biotech startup contraction continues, and that’s a good thing (Life Sci VC)
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Chasing Novo and Lilly: the obesity drugs that could challenge Wegovy and Zepbound (BioPharma Dive)
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