CancerIQ, a platform powering early cancer detection and prevention across broad patient populations, has closed a $14 million Series B financing round co-led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHI) and Amgen Ventures. Other investors participating in the round were McKesson Ventures; OSF HealthCare; a current health system customer; and CancerIQ’s Series A lead investor, HealthX Ventures.
This funding round comes one month after a report from the President’s Cancer Panel calling for “urgent and immediate action” to close gaps in cancer screening, risk assessment, and timely follow-up care—particularly among diverse, uninsured or underinsured, and rural populations.
Systemic access barriers have created stark inequality when it comes to preventive cancer care in the U.S. For example, Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of breast cancer and 41 percent more likely to die of the disease than white women. These issues have been compounded by the 9.5 million cancer screenings missed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to an increase in late-stage cancer diagnoses that are more costly and have a greater impact on quality of life and outcomes than early-stage diagnoses.
CancerIQ’s two Black female co-founders are on a mission to solve this problem.
“The cancer research community has made great strides in cancer prevention and treatment,” said Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade, MD, co-founder and chief scientific advisor of CancerIQ. “But now we must accelerate and scale the clinical pipeline, so a diverse population of patients—those receiving care at academic medical centers and community hospitals alike—can benefit from these advaices.”
Dr. Olopade served on the National Cancer Advisory Board and is one of the field’s foremost authorities on cancer genetics and precision oncology.
“CancerIQ’s vision is to end cancer as we know it by eliminating health disparities and democratizing access to the latest advances in cancer early detection and prevention,” said Feyi Olopade Ayodele, co-founder and CEO of CancerIQ. “We started by making genetic testing more accessible and connecting patients to the right preventive services at the right time. This latest round of funding will help CancerIQ reach more patients and connect to more innovations that promise to transform cancer from a deadly disease into a manageable condition.”
CancerIQ’s precision health platform, which is being used by clinicians at more than 180 locations across the country, makes it easy to determine a patient’s individual risk of cancer based on family history, genetics, behavior, and other factors, and then connect them to the corresponding care pathways. These may range from MRIs, prophylactic surgeries, and vaccinations to at-home screening kits, multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests, lifestyle interventions, and other services such as clinical trials, educational materials, and social resources.
CancerIQ is embedded directly into electronic health record workflows so clinicians in any care setting can easily access the latest genomics research, clinical guidelines, and life sciences innovations.
The new funding will help CancerIQ grow its precision health platform, strengthen its partnership ecosystem, and expand its health system network. Following a recent series of key executive hires, the company plans to hire 50 more people to meet the rising demand for more efficient and innovative cancer prevention services.
Read the original press release here.
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