Owlstone Medical, developer of the Breath Biopsy platform for early disease detection and precision medicine, has announced the close of its series D financing round. The company exceeded its $50m target, securing $58m in funding (£42m), which brings the total raised by the Company to more than $150m (£109m) since its founding in 2016. The round was led by returning investor Horizons Ventures, which has taken a seat on Owlstone Medical’s board, and is joined by other existing and additional investors from Asia, the Middle East and the United States.
The company's proprietary platform is used in both routine diagnostic testing and in biomarker discovery. The company generates revenue by providing research products and services to leading pharmaceutical and academic organisations, as well as having a pipeline of research use only (RUO) panels and diagnostic tests in development in lung cancer, liver disease, and respiratory disease. This financing is planned to accelerate the development and commercialisation of these tests and facilitate further advancements in the company's platform.
“Owlstone Medical continues to make tremendous progress, including major advancements in our Breath Biopsy platform such as the development of EVOC Probes; strong progress in our test pipeline with the launch of the respiratory diseases RUO Panel and the publication of key study results for liver disease; and entering into a partnership with Functional Gut Diagnostics for the provision of clinical tests for SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and food intolerance,” said Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical. “We are thrilled to have the support of such highly respected investors as we strive to have a major impact on patient outcomes and the efficient delivery of healthcare resources and are very pleased to now welcome the experience and insight of Horizons’ Patrick Zhang to our Board.”
Patrick Zhang, Horizons Ventures commented: "Accurate biomarkers collected non-invasively will be important screening and diagnostic tools for the future of healthcare. We are excited that Owlstone Medical's transformative Breath Biopsy technology will be the basis for development of a set of important biomarkers that could gauge and safeguard our health painlessly and effectively."
