Elypta, a Swedish diagnostics company aiming to commercialize the first metabolism-based liquid biopsy for early detection of any cancer, has raised $21 million in a series A financing round led by Bonnier Ventures.
“The series A is a pivotal moment for Elypta as it fully funds the development of our two leading indications,” said Karl Bergman, CEO at Elypta.
The company will use the capital to develop and validate blood and urine tests for multi-cancer early detection (MCED) in adults with no symptoms of cancer and for detection of recurrence in kidney cancer patients. The tests are based on the profiling of human glycosaminoglycans – also known as the GAGome – as biomarkers of cancer metabolism, an approach pioneered by Elypta based on research performed at Chalmers University of Technology by founders Francesco Gatto and Jens Nielsen.
“Our MCED test has the potential to greatly increase the share of cancers detected at the earliest stages when treatment could mean a cure besides being less costly,” Gatto said.
“Detecting stage I cancer is the key challenge here, and whereas other MCED tests based on cell free DNA struggle to find cancer at this early stage, metabolism-based biomarkers could really make a difference.”
Bonnier Ventures led the round and were joined by existing companies such as Wallenberg Investment’s venture capital arm Navigare Ventures, Industrifonden, Norrsken VC, Nina Capital, Chalmers Ventures and Hillclimber. Locust Walk served as transaction advisor to Elypta.
“Bonnier Ventures is proud to support Elypta’s excellent team in their mission to reduce cancer mortality, says Sofia Hasselberg, Investment Director at Bonnier Ventures.
“The metabolism-based technology is unique in this space and enables detection of many cancer types prior to symptoms. As it is also more cost-efficient than anything we have seen, we believe it has great potential to improve cancer outcomes.”
Ongoing studies
Elypta currently has two major multicenter studies in progress, LEVANTIS-0087A for MCED and AURORAX-0087A, an EU co-funded study under grant agreement No 849251, for kidney cancer recurrence.
LEVANTIS-0087A is a retrospective study to validate the diagnostic performance of free GAGome-based tests for MCED detection in adults asymptomatic for cancer with no recent history of cancer. The study plans to enrol more than 9,000 people.
AURORAX-0087A is a study to validate the diagnostic performance of free GAGome-based tests for the early detection of recurrence after curative intent surgery in patients.
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