GR Cancer Care IT Company Closes $7.2M Financing
Intervention Insights, a Grand Rapids-based health care IT company that helps community oncologists develop individualized patient treatment plans, today announced the close of $7.2 million in Series B financing.
The deal was co-led by Michigan venture investor Beringea and Louisville, Ky.-based Chrysalis Ventures, who were joined by Hopen Life Sciences, Michigan Accelerator Fund I and other existing investors.
In conjunction with the financing, Beringea managing director Michael Gross and Chrysalis managing director Koleman Karleski have joined Intervention Insights' board of directors.
The company says the investment will enable expanded commercialization of its OncInsights product platform, while furthering strategic relationships in the cancer care industry.
"Our new funding positions us well in the emerging personalized oncology market and allows us to expand our service offerings to support community oncologists," said Jerry Callahan, CEO of Intervention Insights. "We believe that serving community oncology, as opposed to reserving optimal care to our academic cancer centers, is a critical element in improving cancer care in the U.S."
Callahan said more than 80 percent of U.S. cancer patients are treated in a community setting.
Founded in 2009 based on a technology licensed from the Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), Intervention Insights' flagship product, OncInsights, is based on VARI's powerful bioinformatics platform. The OncInsights service works by matching a patient's unique cancer profile of more than 22,000 genes and matches the cancer's unique genomic make-up to the molecular mechanisms of action for more than 300 drugs. The end result is an easy-to-use report, electronically delivered to the oncologist to support her in making a treatment decision. This interactive report ranks molecularly targeted therapies which may target the patient's cancer.
The OncInsights service is continually refined to provide physicians with latest evidenced-based, patient specific treatment options in an effort to improve outcomes and reduce costs.
"Intervention Insights is another example of innovation emerging from the state of Michigan's investment in life science research, resulting in an industry-leading technology that is transforming the way oncologists administer care," said Michael Gross, managing director of Beringea. "The company's technology is part of a rapidly emerging 'personalized' era of medicine, which uses a patient's unique genetic information to tailor the appropriate therapy. Beringea is eager to help Intervention Insights bring its unique technology to a broader market and contribute to Michigan's reputation as a leader in health care."
Intervention Insights' mission is to improve the lives of patients afflicted with cancer through evidence-based, molecularly targeted therapeutic interventions that are applied by community physicians. Founded in 2009 as part of a new field associating drug therapies with genomic signatures of disease -- pharmacogenomics -- our bioinformatics platform maps the unique genomic characteristics of a cancer specimen to treatments designed to target a patient's unique molecular tumor profile. The technology is commercially available and used by an expanding network of community oncologists.
More at www.interventioninsights.com.
Headquartered in Farmington Hills, Beringea is Michigan's largest and most active venture and expansion-stage capital investor. With an additional office in London, Beringea has more than 70 portfolio companies in the U.S. and UK in a range of sectors, including health care and life sciences, clean technology, advanced manufacturing, media, Internet technologies and specialized consumer products. Beringea is the manager of several funds, including the InvestMichigan Growth Capital Fund and the ProVen family of venture capital trusts. For more information, visit www.beringea.com or www.investmichiganfund.com.
Chrysalis Ventures manages one of Mid-America's largest funds for early-stage and growth investments with approximately $400 million under management. Since 1993, the firm has invested in over 65 companies, primarily in the healthcare and technology sectors. With headquarters in Louisville, Ky., Chrysalis has offices in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor and Houston. The firm seeks to partner with entrepreneurs to build enduring businesses in industries undergoing significant transformation. For more information, please visit www.chrysalisventures.com.
