Disease diagnostics software provider Perspectum secured the return of Oxford and OSI to take its funding total to at least $41m.

Perspectum, a UK-based liver disease diagnostics software spinout of University of Oxford, has completed a $36m round featuring the university and its venture fund Oxford Science Innovation.
Blue Venture Fund, the corporate venturing unit affiliated to 36 health insurance providers in the BlueCross BlueShield Association, co-led the round with venture capital firm HealthQuest Capital.
The round was filled out by venture capital firm Puhua Capital and undisclosed existing investors.
Founded in 2012 from University of Oxford’s Radcliffe Department of Medicine,  Perspectum has developed medical imaging software that diagnoses and measures chronic liver disease using biomarkers and verification by the spinout’s human specialists.
Perspectum’s first product, LiverMultiScan, extracts quantitative data from existing MRI scans to identify chronic liver diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (Nash). At present, a full biopsy is needed to diagnose these conditions conclusively.
LiverMultiScan is already approved for medical use in the US, and Perspectum also intends to enter China to address the latter’s growing prevalence of Nash.
The product is pitched as a companion to forthcoming liver disease drugs, including a Nash treatment from University of Perugia spinout Intercept Pharmaceuticals that could be approved in the US later in 2020.
Apart from LiverMultiScan, Perspectum also assists contract research organisations (CRO) – researchers working on behalf of biopharmaceutical developers – with liver and metabolic disease projects.
The funding will help expand Perspectum’s existing and new product lines, including diagnostic tools for biliary disease – disorders impacting the production of bile – diabetes and cancer. Garheng Kong, managing partner at HealthQuest, will join the board of directors.
Perspectum previously closed a $5m financing round in 2015 backed by the university’s tech transfer office Oxford University Innovation and its public healthcare affiliate Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.