Quantgene Raises $6 Million, Sets Marketing Partnership

Santa Monica-based genomic test developer Quantgene Inc. has raised $6 million in bridge funding and has established a marketing partnership with molecular diagnostic company Vikor Scientific, the lead investor in the funding round.

Quantgene announced the raise and the partnership on Feb. 17, but did not disclose the amount of the investment by Charleston, S.C.-based Vikor.

Quantgene, which was founded in 2015, has been developing a form of genomic testing known as liquid biopsy that analyzes genetic mutations in blood samples to detect cancer and other diseases. 

This latest funding is the third for Quantgene, following an initial seed investment of $6.1 million and a $6.4 million convertible note last year.

Vikor Scientific, which is headquartered in a life sciences campus near the Medical University of South Carolina, has a certified lab that screens for molecular pathogens on behalf of medical providers.

Under the marketing partnership, Vikor will tap its medical provider customer base to help commercialize Quantgene’s liquid biopsy genomic test platform, which it calls Serenity.

“We are first-to-market in combining liquid biopsy cancer detection with whole exome sequencing and advanced medical intelligence,” Jo Bhakdi, Quantgene’s founder and chief executive, said in the announcement. “We hope to unlock a new era in medicine in which trained physicians can detect multiple cancers at early stages in the blood with single molecule precision.”

For Vikor, its investment in Quantgene and the marketing partnership give it access to what it hopes proves a powerful new diagnostic tool.

“The platform built by the Quantgene team is revolutionary and certain to accelerate the speed at which we diagnose and treat patients for cancer,” Scotty Branch, co-founder of Vikor Scientific, said in the announcement.

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