PathoQuest closes new fundraising of EUR 3.8 million

Jul 12 2013

The new round of financing will be used for the first clinical study of a disruptive Next Generation Sequencing cloud-based diagnostic assay for infectious diseases

PathoQuest, a new generation molecular diagnostics company that offers a new approach based on NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) in the field of infectious diseases, announces today the closing of a new fundraising of EUR 3.8 million. This round brings in two new investors, Idinvest and Aurinvest, in addition to the existing investor Kurma Life Science Partners.

PathoQuest develops solutions for high unmet needs in clinical diagnosis of infectious diseases. The company, founded in 2010, previously raised EUR 2 million in March 2011. The additional funds will allow PathoQuest to launch the first clinical study of a novel NGS-SaaS (Software as a Service) cloud based diagnostic assay. This assay is a bioinformatics workflow that is designed to assist the diagnostic decision-making. This clinical study will target diagnosis of severe multi-etiological-based infectious episodes in immuno-compromised patients. This immuno-suppression can be congenital or acquired, whether through immuno-suppressing treatment post-transplant or through anticancer chemotherapy.

For immuno-compromised patients, the current leading diagnostic approaches remain unsatisfactory. Current approaches are biased, because, as the targets are defined, in principle you can only find what you are looking for. With NGS, you can identify any target, without prior selection. PathoQuest’s assay will allow identification of pathogens in two days, compared with several weeks with current approaches. As a result, the diagnostic is more accurate and the cost is reduced. PathoQuest intends to launch a first commercial product in 2015, following an extension of this clinical trial in the US in the coming months.

“We are delighted to launch the first clinical trial with an unbiased diagnostic approach in the field of infectious diseases,” said Prof. Marc Eloit, president and CSO and Luc Boblet, CEO of PathoQuest.

Using a unique combination of proprietary sample prep and bio-IT algorithms, PathoQuest’s business model is based on ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS). In the area of infectious diseases, PathoQuest is the only company on the market to combine NGS of the whole genome of a pathogen with SaaS, while offering cloud computing access. PathoQuest will act as an alternative to well established solutions on the market by offering reagent kits and distributed bio-IT services through this cloud computing model.

“We think the results of the first PathoQuest clinical trial will position the company to meet high medical needs with a good value solution,” said Thierry Laugel, managing partner at Kurma Life Sciences. “Helping to create highly innovative companies from an academic background continues to build the knowledge and experience of Kurma.”

“We are pleased to invest in such a promising project and to work in close connection with both the Pasteur Institute and KLS partners,” said Michel Demont, president of Aurinvest. “PathoQuest,is our sixth investment in the life sciences sector and our second with the Pasteur Institute.”