iCellate Medical raises 16 MSEK in new equity to demonstrate its clinical validity and utility
Stockholm, Sweden – June 30, 2018 – iCellate Medical has raised 16 MSEK in new equity, from both existing and new shareholders. iCellate’s mission is to detect cancer early, when it can still be cured, and to guide individual therapies.
iCellate, a privately held Swedish medtech company, is an innovation leader in the fields of cancer diagnostics and cancer management. 10 out of the 16 MSEK came from new shareholders, expanding the owner base, of which the following should be noted; “Albert & Annas minne” foundation (descendants to the founder of Sandvik AB) and Stassi Anastassov (a former Proctor & Gamble executive).
Pelle Redare, CEO of iCellate, comments, “We are really proud to attract such great investors and to secure funds in order to improve patient care and to bring further evidence for iCellate’s pioneering technology.”
The additional funds will be used to demonstrate further clinical validation of the early detection of prostate cancer and clinical utility in personalized cancer medicine.
iCellate has developed a proprietary technology to detect and analyze a new sample type, circulation tumor cells (CTCs). Cancer spreads from its origin in a primary tumor to distant parts of the body through CTCs that migrate into the lymphatic and blood circulation systems. By identifying and analyzing these CTCs while they are still spreading the disease, and before they have settled in distant organs, iCellate can help physicians detect and target cancer at an early stage.
What also makes CTCs important is the possibility to sequence the genomes of the detected cells. With the genomic sequencing data in hand, supplemented by advanced bio-informatics and clinical interpretation, iCellate can determine which oncogenic genetic variants cause the disease, how it should be treated and predict where the primary tumor is probably located in the body.
iCellate recently published a groundbreaking screening study of a high-risk population of 3388 subjectively healthy individuals (ICELLATE2). The results of the study showed for the first time that screening for circulating tumor cells can be used as a promising new screening test for the early detection of cancer.
About iCellate Medical
iCellate was founded as a spin off from research performed at the Karolinska Institute medical research institute and medical university. The company has its office and laboratory near the Karolinska University Hospital and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, where it performs its services.
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