Prominent genetics company 23andMe continues to move forward by receiving $115 million in a Series E financing, which was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company.
“23andMe pioneered the personal genetics industry. Our efforts to enable individuals to access, understand and benefit from the human genome have achieved a level of scale that will enable us to further advance genetic research and drug discovery around the world,” Andy Page, president of 23andMe, said in a release. “This round of funding will enable us to further our vision for long term growth in our consumer and therapeutic businesses.”
Beyond Fidelity, new investors include Casdin Capital, WuXi Healthcare Ventures and Xfund, as well as existing investors including Illumina, New Enterprise Associates, MPM Capital, and Google Ventures.
Just this year, 23andMe has served one million individuals and is continuing to expand. As the release pointed out, recent accomplishments include:
- First company to receive market authorization from the FDA for a direct-to-consumer genetic test.
- Expanded international product offering localized for UK, Canada and certain EU countries.
- Executed several pharmaceutical and academic collaborations for disease related research, further validating the capabilities of 23andMe’s database of genetic and phenotypic information and re-contactability of patient cohorts.
- Established therapeutics discovery group led by Dr. Richard Scheller as chief science officer.
Despite some previous bumps in the road (big bumps with the FDA), it looks like 23andMe is continuing to make a prominent presence in the space with confident supporters.
In fact, Forbes is including 23andMe as one of six privately held companies – unicorns, in Silicon Valley parlance, and they are being featured as separate covers for the new issue of Forbes Magazine.
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.
Photo: Flickr user Leon Brocard
