Biocartis Raises EUR30 million in Series 'B' Financing Round

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, April 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Biocartis SA, a biotech company active in the field of personalized medicine and focused on fast, multiplexed and fully integrated molecular diagnostics based on its proprietary micro-technology and sample preparation platforms, today announced the successful closing of a Series B equity financing round. The Company raised EUR 30 million (~ USD 41.3 million) from its current shareholder base of leading life science investors and two new strategic investors from the pharmaceutical/diagnostic industry.

The new investors are the Debiopharm Group(TM) (Debiopharm) (Lausanne, Switzerland) and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), each thus obtaining a minority stake in Biocartis.

This financing round was also underwritten by Aescap, Biocartis' original lead-investor (The Netherlands), Biovest (Belgium), Advent Venture Partners (United Kingdom), several Biocartis employees and Benaruca, the family investment vehicle of Biocartis' co-founder Rudi Pauwels.

Biocartis has developed and licensed a series of new technologies to build a broadly applicable new diagnostics platform for low to highly multiplexed detection, quantification, and amplification of molecular-based biomarkers, including nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules. Following its recent acquisition of the Philips' technology for rapid and fully automated DNA/RNA molecular diagnostic testing, Biocartis will use the proceeds of this round to accelerate its plans to finalize the development and validation of the first version of its proprietary new platform.

"Debiopharm recognized some time ago that companion diagnostics would play an increasingly important role in personalized medicine and the cost-effectiveness of healthcare in general" said Thierry Mauvernay, executive vice-president of Debiopharm Group, who added: "we are extremely happy to have started a new financial partnership with a dynamic start up company that has all the necessary strengths and management know-how to become a leading player in the field of in-vitro-diagnostics. Its potential combined with the various disruptive technologies it has created and licensed is perfectly in line with Debiopharm's own efforts at the frontline of innovation in life-sciences at large."

Dr. Pietro Scalfaro, from Debiopharm has joined the board of directors of Biocartis, now chaired by Dinko Valerio from Aescap. Dr. Scalfaro holds an MD with a specialty in pediatric intensive care medicine and led several drug development projects at Debiopharm before focusing on the development of their companion diagnostics strategy within a newly created business unit.

Rudi Pauwels, founder of Biocartis, Director and CEO, commented "This successful financing, within weeks after closing the acquisition of the Philips technology, is yet another important step in our plans to bring a novel and cost-effective diagnostic solution to the healthcare community. There is a global need to turn the many scientific advances in the understanding of the molecular basis of diseases and treatments into routine daily clinical practice. The commitment and support of the Biocartis Board members, shareholders and employees have been instrumental in Biocartis' rapid progress on this mission. I am particularly pleased that two new investors have now joined Biocartis. Our vision is of a future for medicine whereby the classical isolated elements of diagnostics and pharmaceuticals become more aligned and increasingly part of a much more integrated solution designed to optimize the outcome for the individual patient. Biocartis plans to actively work together with pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biomarker groups who can and would like to contribute to the practical realization of these goals."

About Biocartis - http://www.biocartis.com

Biocartis is a privately owned biotech company that was founded in 2007 by Dr. Rudi Pauwels (Co-founder of Tibotec, Virco and Galapagos Genomics), Prof. Philippe Renaud (Prof. at EPFL), and Nader Donzel (Co-founder of Scitec laboratory Automation). Biocartis engages in the development of a novel diagnostics technology platform for low to highly multiplexed detection of molecular-based biomarkers. The Company is focused on the delivery of a versatile and compact molecular diagnostic platform whose ease of use and operational characteristics will lower the entry barrier to molecular diagnostic testing. Biocartis is based at the EPFL Science Park in Lausanne, Switzerland and at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

About Debiopharm - http://www.debiopharm.com

Debiopharm is a Swiss-based global biopharmaceutical group of companies with a focus on the development of innovative prescription drugs that target unmet medical needs, and which has embarked in the field of companion diagnostics with a view to progressing in the area of personalized medicine.

About Aescap Venture - http://www.aescap.com

Aescap Venture is a venture capital company investing in private medical companies in Europe. Aescap's Partners have a proven track record of success and the skills to coach entrepreneurs in accelerating the growth of their companies.

About Biovest - Rudi Marien

Rudi Marien was co-founder, reference shareholder and Chairman of Innogenetics, and has been the founder, shareholder and Managing Director of several clinical reference laboratories.

About Advent Venture Partners - http://www.adventventures.com

Advent Venture Partners is a long established European Venture Capital firm with a strong record of building successful companies.

    For further information, please contact:
    Rudi Pauwels
    CEO
    Phone: +41-21-693-90-51
    Fax:   +41-21-560-42-91

SOURCE Biocartis