In vitro fertilization is a tough process. Even if a set of embryos are able to form, it’s a real crapshoot to see which – if any – will actually be viable. Bay Area biotech Auxogyn has developed a test to track whether an embryo is developing successfully – and has raised a healthy swath of cash to commercialize its fresh-on-the-market product, the Eeva Test.
The company recently pulled in $34 million, according to a new regulatory filing. The last fundraise it announced was an $18 million Series B back in 2013. This most recent SEC notice likely contains a portion of that Series B, an Auxogyn spokeswoman said, but she wouldn’t elaborate further. Still, this is a hefty fundraise and worthy of note – and the company’s been up to quite a lot:
The Eeva test received FDA clearance last June. It allows in vitro fertilization clinicians to noninvasively track how an embryo is developing, so as to help optimize treatment plans for patients. A clinical trial claimed that using the test more than doubled the likelihood of picking viable embryos for implantation, when compared to the standard observation of morphology approach.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Auxogyn also announced just last week a merger with Fertile Authority, which matches patients across the country with fertility doctors. It’s also meant to help keep IVF pricing transparent. This kind of acquisition is fantastic conduit for rapid market penetration, no?
“By leveraging Fertility Authority’s online patient-matching platform, the combined entity will enable more consumers to become educated about the benefits of single embryo transfer and about Auxogyn’s Eeva Test,” the companies say in a statement.
The research comes from Stanford University, when back in 2010 a team of biologists, engineers and clinical embryologists started looking for non-invasive markers that’d help IVF docs identify viable embryos early. It uses time-lapse microscope imaging with gene expression data to see which of a large number of embryos – developed over a critical five day period that goes from the Day 1 pronucleus stage to the Day 5 blastocyst stage – are ready to grow. The company’s site breaks it down here.
Previous investors in Auxogyn include TPG Biotech, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, Merck Serono Ventures and SR One.
