Tethys Bioscience, a privately held company, announced today that it has closed a $25 million Series D round of financing led by aeris CAPITAL AG and including Wasatch Advisors as a new investor. All current investors, including MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and Intel Capital participated in the round. Tethys also announced that it has appointed George Rehm, Managing Partner of aeris CAPITAL, to the Tethys Board of Directors.
Proceeds from the financing will be used to expand commercialization of the Company’s proprietary PreDx™ Diabetes Risk Score (DRS) product, a simple-to-administer blood test to help clinicians identify those patients at highest risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the next five years.
“These funds will enable Tethys to respond to rapidly increasing customer demand for the PreDx DRS from the large primary care physician market and to broaden our reach to these clinicians through new commercialization strategies,” said Mickey Urdea, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Tethys. “To enhance the clinician’s experience and effectiveness with the PreDx DRS, we are also developing a diabetes risk-reduction initiative, which will help them to educate their high-risk patients about critical lifestyle and behavioral changes that may help prevent the development of diabetes.”
The PreDx DRS is a blood test performed by the Tethys Clinical Laboratory that provides enhanced diabetes risk assessment through the measurement of multiple biomarkers implicated in the development of type 2 diabetes. Test results are presented in the form of a Diabetes Risk Score: a number ranging from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) which directly correlates with a patient’s risk of developing the disease within the next 5 years.
“Tethys is breaking new ground in the diabetes field with the PreDx DRS, which will help clinicians to identify patients at severe risk of becoming diabetic, and who are most likely to benefit from focused intervention and disease prevention management,” said George Rehm, Managing Partner of aeris CAPITAL AG and member of the Tethys Board of Directors. “The Company’s technology has broad utility in multiple chronic disease areas where early identification and disease prevention programs have the potential to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.”
While diabetes has no cure, clinical studies have shown that it can be prevented, and determining one’s diabetes risk is the first step in avoiding this chronic, life-threatening disease. Clinical studies have shown that aggressive intervention with diet and exercise alone can reduce the incidence of diabetes by up to 60%. With the PreDx Diabetes Risk Score, clinicians can identify those individuals with the greatest 5-year risk of diabetes conversion so they can receive appropriate diabetes prevention regimens.
George M. Rehm is a Managing Partner of aeris CAPITAL AG in Switzerland and has over twenty five years experience as a lawyer and executive in international licensing, technology transfer, investment and privatization transactions, involving the US, Europe and Asia, prior to commencing his current career in private equity. Currently, he holds board seats in numerous portfolio companies. Mr. Rehm remains of counsel to the Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin law firm of Weitnauer Partners. He received his BSFS from Georgetown University, and a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.
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