NEW YORK (360Dx) – OncoMark on Wednesday announced €2.1 million ($2.2 million) in funding to commercialize its breast cancer diagnostic test.
The Irish diagnostics firm plans to launch the test, called OncoMasTR, in 2018, it said. A biomarker-based prognostic test for early-stage breast cancer, OncoMasTR is aimed at reducing the number of patients who needlessly receive chemotherapy.
"In the absence of accurate tests, the majority of early-stage breast cancer patients are treated with chemotherapy despite many not benefitting from the treatment," OncoMark CEO Des O'Leary said in a statement. "The OncoMasTR test is designed to enable a more personalized approach to patient care, helping clinicians to determine which patients should not receive chemotherapy, ultimately improving their quality of life."
The company previously received €2.7 million through the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2 to clinically validate OncoMasTR. The new funding will be used to move the test from validation to regulatory approval and full commercialization, said OncoMark, a spinout of University College Dublin.
Investors in the funding included Kernel Capital, through the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Venture Funds; the Irrus Investments syndicate; the Galway HBAN MedTech syndicate; private investors; and Enterprise Ireland.