Company name: Provista Diagnostics.
Industry: diagnostics.
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona.
Solution/product: Provista develops blood-based detection tests for women’s cancers. Its lead product, dtectDx-Breast, would be used in conjunction with mammograms to help support early detection of breast cancer by identifying certain biomarkers in the blood. Its pipeline also includes early detection tests for ovarian cancer and lung cancer
Money raised: Existing investors tacked an extra $2.5 million on to the company’s series A, which originally closed in March, and brings the total for the round to $7.5 million.
How it will be used: The company says it will use the funding to expand its laboratory capabilities, complete a clinical trial and proceed toward a regulatory submission for dtectDx-Breast.
Investors: unknown.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Management team: CEO David Reese formerly oversaw healthcare investments as a managing director at Brencourt Advisors and Yorkville Advisors. He also founded an investment consulting firm in 2003.
Market opportunity: An estimated 232,000 Americans were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2011. If it’s detected before spreading to regional lymph nodes, breast cancer has a 98 percent 5-year survival rate. Estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER2 are the biomarkers traditionally used in breast cancer testing, but startups today are focusing on developing new biomarkers and making diagnostic tests available to providers at the bedside. Ascendant Diagnostics and GeneAsses, for example, are developing biomarkers for breast cancer, and UE Lifesciences and First Warning Systems are working on devices that use sensors to detect tumors early.
