PredictImmune, a Cambridge spinout, added series B capital from investors including Cambridge Enterprise and CIC to $6.1m in series A funding raised last April.
PredictImmune, a UK-based autoimmune disease prognostics spinout of University of Cambridge, today closed a £10m ($12.1m) series B round backed by the university’s tech transfer office Cambridge Enterprise.
Cambridge Innovation Capital, the university’s affiliate patient capital fund, also contributed, as did Parkwalk Advisors, the fund management arm of commercialisation firm IP Group and BGF.
Founded in 2017, PredictImmune supplies prognostic tools which aid medical professionals in formulating a treatment plan for patients with immune-mediated diseases.
PredictImmune’s first product is a blood test which applies an algorithm to biomarkers revealed within the sample to help define prognoses for forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
The test, PredictSure IBD, is available to clinicians in the UK and Ireland and will launch in other EU markets later this year. It follows 10 years of research into gene expression of CD8+ T cells, a white blood cell believed to signal the likely course of autoimmune disease.
Combatting autoimmune disease often involves immunosuppressant drugs which can cause significant side effects, despite inhibiting the targeted immune reaction.
PredictImmune hopes its test will help clinicians stratify IBD patients and thus tailor prescriptions more effectively.
PredictImmune will use funds from the series B round to follow up the launch of PredictSure IBD with commercial expansion over coming months in Europe, the US and other international markets.
Proceeds will also support its efforts to diversify with tests for other autoimmune diseases, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic inflammatory condition affecting the joints, skin and organs.
PredictImmune’s approach was pioneered by three members of University of Cambridge’s Department of Medicine – Kenneth Smith, professor and head of the department, Eoin McKinney, Wellcome-Beit intermediate research fellow, and Paul Lyons, principal research associate.
The latest funding comes after a $6.1m series A round for the spinout in April 2018 led by Parkwalk’s Opportunities Fund, with participation from both Cambridge Enterprise and investment fund Wren Capital.
