Good Start Genetics Announces $14M Series B Financing, Expands Senior Management Team

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Good Start Genetics,™ Inc., an innovative molecular diagnostics company developing the new gold standard in carrier screening, today announced it completed the initial closing of a $14 million Series B Preferred Stock financing, which was led by existing investors OrbiMed Advisors, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) and SV Life Sciences. Proceeds from this financing will be used to augment commercial efforts for the Company's pre-conception carrier screening tests, and to support continued R&D efforts around its proprietary technology platform for future applications.

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Don Hardison, President and CEO of Good Start Genetics, says, "We are pleased to complete the initial closing of our second financing as it provides the necessary funding to position Good Start Genetics for the next phase of growth. We value the vote of confidence and continued support from our current stockholders and are fortunate to have such a supportive group of world-class investors on our side."

NEW HIRES
As part of Good Start Genetics' growth and commercialization initiatives, the company has expanded its senior management team in areas of Finance, Human Resources as well as Customer Care and Reimbursement

• Chief Financial Officer — Jean Franchi has more than 20 years of experience in specialty pharmaceutical, biotech, and diagnostics industries. Prior to joining Good Start Genetics, Ms. Franchi held a variety of senior business positions at Genzyme Corporation, including Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance and brings highly relevant experience to support commercial operations and business development activities.
• Vice President of Human Resources — Paul Ethridge is an accomplished business leader with broad strategic and operational HR experience including domestic and international operations at the local, regional, and global level, including over 20 years of executive HR leadership experience with GlaxoSmithKline, most recently as Global Vice President of Human Resources for its Consumer Healthcare Supply division. He has had particular success in developing and implementing strategies to develop organizational culture and will be instrumental to support our commercial organization.
• Vice President of Customer Care and Reimbursement — Laura Sullivan has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry providing senior operational and reimbursement leadership. Prior to joining Good Start Genetics, Sullivan served as Vice President of Reimbursement and Contracting of Genzyme Genetics for 11 years and is experienced in securing reimbursement and working closely with customers and payors in the Genetic testing industry.

PROMOTIONS
In addition to Good Start Genetics' new hires, the company is pleased to announce promotions for the following team members in the areas of research, technology and operations:

• Vice President of Research and Technology — Gregory Porreca, Ph.D. is a founder of Good Start Genetics and joined the company in 2009.  He is an expert developer of genome analysis technology and has served as a Lecturer on Genetics at Harvard Medical School as well as the Personal Genome Project Director of Technology. During that time, he co-developed the Polonator, a high-throughput commercial DNA sequencing system, in collaboration with Danaher Motion Dover. Greg also co-developed one of the first next-generation DNA sequencing systems at Harvard, which was further developed by Applied Biosystems to become the SOLiD platform. He is a featured author in numerous prestigious publications, an inventor on multiple patents/applications for nucleic acid analysis and has consulted for sequencing-related biotech companies.   Dr. Porreca holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University and bachelor's degree majoring in Computer Science and Biology from The College of New Jersey.
• Vice President of Laboratory Operations and Medical Director — Stephanie Hallam, Ph.D. brings more than 20 years of experience working, managing and directing a broad range of molecular and clinical molecular diagnostics. Before joining Good Start Genetics, she served as Vice President of Operations and Quality Systems at Allegro Diagnostics, Director of Clinical Operations at Genzyme Genetics, and Laboratory Director at each of Athena Diagnostics, Kimball Genetics, and the University of Utah. Dr. Hallam holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, and an M.B.A. from Clark University. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics, holding certification in Clinical Molecular Genetics and Ph.D. Medical Genetics, and is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics.

Don Hardison continued, "We are honored to attract and promote such exceptionally talented, experienced and successful professionals to Good Start Genetics to complement our strong and experienced management team. Our high caliber team will be vital to growing and expanding our platform."

About Good Start Genetics, Inc.
Good Start Genetics is setting the new gold standard in carrier screening by making testing for the most comprehensive set of known and novel disease-causing mutations accessible for routine clinical practice. After years of development and rigorous validation, Good Start Genetics has harnessed the power of next-generation sequencing and other best-in-class technologies to provide highly accurate, actionable, and affordable tests for all ACOG and ACMG recommended disorders. For these reasons, fertility specialists and their patients can have a high degree of confidence in their carrier screening results, and no longer have to compromise accuracy for price.
For more information, please visit www.goodstartgenetics.com.

About OrbiMed
OrbiMed is a preeminent investment firm dedicated exclusively to the healthcare sector with over $5 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests across the entire spectrum of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies on a worldwide basis. Investments are made through venture capital funds, hedge funds, and other investment vehicles. For more information, please visit www.orbimed.com.

About Safeguard Scientifics
Founded in 1953 and based in Wayne, PA, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) provides growth capital and operational support to entrepreneurial and innovative life sciences and technology companies. Specifically in life sciences, Safeguard targets companies in Molecular and Point-of-Care Diagnostics, Medical Devices, Regenerative Medicine, Specialty Pharmaceuticals and selected healthcare services, and technology companies in Internet / New Media, Financial Services IT, Healthcare IT and selected business services with capital requirements of up to $25 million. For more information, please visit www.safeguard.com.

About SV Life Sciences
SV Life Sciences is a venture capital adviser and manager that make selected investments in businesses with experienced entrepreneurs and management teams. SV Life Sciences provides financing to businesses at all stages of development and across the human life sciences sector. These sectors range from biotechnology and pharmaceuticals to medical devices and instruments, to healthcare information technology and services. For more information, please visit www.svlsa.com.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements are only predictions based on management's current projections and goals and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties.  Information in these forward-looking statements is inherently uncertain and the Company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Good Start Genetics, Inc.