MediSapiens Gets $ 1 Million for World's First Personalized Cancer Medicine Software

HELSINKI, June 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- MediSapiens, world's first software company for personalized cancer medicine in oncology clinics and drug development, completed $ 1 million (EUR 0.8 million) seed round investment from Veraventure, ETFIII advised by Eqvitec Partners, VTT Ventures and Lifeline Ventures.

MediSapiens is based on scientific research at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and its collaborators. MediSapiens hosts world's largest unified gene expression database of human tissues and diseases. This enables scientists to understand the role of human genes in health and disease - to be applied in helping oncologists in choosing optimal treatments and biopharmaceutical companies in developing next generation personalized medicines.

"The latest research - such as The Cancer Genome Atlas funded by the NIH - demonstrates that every patient's cancer is a complex, unique combination of genetic mutations and abnormally expressed genes. The MediSapiens software gives personalized and clinically applicable insight into each patient's cancer," says Tommi Pisto, CEO and Co-founder of MediSapiens.

"Making use of the data produced by the global scientific community provides a new and significant opportunity to understand cancer. Oncologists can benefit when these reference datasets are used to interpret molecular profiling results for individual patients," comments Professor Olli Kallioniemi, MediSapiens board member and director of the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM).

About MediSapiens

MediSapiens, the world's first software company for personalized cancer medicine in oncology clinics and new drug development, hosts world's largest unified gene expression database. With the data online, oncologists have access to evaluate individual patient's genetic signature for the optimized treatment strategy, and scientists understand how genes work across all human tissues. Company's bioinformatics science and peer-reviewed data is based on the research since 2005 by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and its collaborators. Visit http://www.medisapiens.fi for more information.

About Veraventure

Veraventure, with assets under management exceeding EUR 100m, is one of the largest early stage funds in Nordic countries. Veraventure makes direct investments in early-stage research, development and innovation intensive enterprises. It also acts as the hub for early-stage venture capital and angel investors as it manages national business angel network with over 100 registered angel investors. Visit http://www.veraventure.fi/company for more information.

About Eqvitec

Eqvitec Partners is one of the largest technology oriented private equity firms in Northern Europe. The company was founded in 1997 and employs 10 investment professionals in Helsinki and Stockholm. Eqvitec Partners currently advises three funds with a total capital base of over EUR 300 million. The funds invest in technology companies in the expansion stage. At the moment the funds have investments in 30 companies and have carried out over 40 exits. Visit http://www.eqvitec.com for more information.

About VTT Ventures

VTT Ventures Ltd is a development company that generates and develops spin-offs based on VTT's technology. We work closely with more than 2,500 VTT researchers and scientists to find the most valuable new technologies to commercialize. Through us, entrepreneurs have access to innovative ideas and know-how of more than 300 patent families. This is the bases for the dealflow that enables us to create growth companies with global potential. Visit http://www.vttventures.fi for more information.

About Lifeline Ventures

Lifeline Ventures, a venture accelerator and early-stage investment fund, co-creates growth companies in health and technology. Being entrepreneurs, we are active team members for an early-stage venture for 12-24 months. Visit http://www.lifelineventures.com for more information.

    Media contact:

    Timo Ahopelto
    VP Strategy
    MediSapiens
    Email: [email protected]
    Telephone: +358-400-569-628

SOURCE MediSapiens Ltd.