Kypha Secures $4 million Series A Funding to Expand Capacity of Biosensia

- Funding to accelerate first-in-class diagnostic platform commercialisation

Kypha, a medical diagnostics company with an innovative testing platform for precision monitoring of immune system activity to improve patient care and advance immune-targeted drug development, has secured $4 million (€3.5 million) in Series A funding led by Arsenal Capital Management (ACM).

This is Kypha's third capital investment led by ACM, a St. Louis-based venture capital firm, focused on emerging growth companies across several industries, including healthcare.

Last July Kypha acquired Biosensia, a diagnostics platform and contract development company, to strengthen Kypha's product portfolio. Since then Biosensia has continued to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kypha at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs, at University College Dublin.

The Series A funding is being used to complete integration and expand capacity of Biosensia and its ISO 13485-certified facilities, to support commercial launch of additional Kypha tests; and to expand partnerships with leading-edge pharmaceutical companies advancing several promising new blockbuster therapies targeting complement, a central arm of the immune system.

Kypha's technology is the only platform that can enable reliable complement testing at scale from home health to clinical laboratory, to support precision immune monitoring as standard of care in a growing multi-billion dollar complement drug and immunotherapy marketplace.

More precise and frequent monitoring of complement and immune activity can facilitate quicker and more accurate treatment decisions – reducing costly misdiagnoses, and ultimately improving outcomes for millions of patients with immune system disorders.

Precision immune monitoring impacts the entire care continuum across a diverse range of conditions including autoimmune disorders, inflammatory disease, and cancer. Tremendous unmet need in these areas, coupled with the growth of immune-targeted therapies, is driving the demand for and impact of complement testing - most of which is not currently reliable, timely, or scalable.

Current testing is complex, with inconsistent results often taking weeks. Kypha's platform overcomes technical obstacles and makes consistently accurate testing widely available with actionable, cost-effective results delivered in minutes.

Chad Stiening, CEO, Kypha, said, "The past year has been transformative for Kypha with the acquisition of Biosensia and explosive growth in the complement therapeutics market. Building on 8 years of technical innovation and deep understanding of clinical workflows, we are excited to secure this additional funding in support of commercial and strategic partnering goals that will deliver pivotal companion diagnostics and immune monitoring solutions to drug developers, patients, providers and payers.”

“Together we can ensure earlier detection, accurate and cost-effective diagnosis, faster treatment optimization and improved management of many lifelong immune-mediated conditions."

Pete Reinecke, Managing Director, ACM said, "We remain very positive about the opportunity Kypha has to bring its innovative testing platform to the market. Bringing new technologies to the healthcare market is always challenging; the Kypha team has worked extremely hard in 2018 and positioned the company for great success. We look forward to working alongside them in 2019."

ENDS

21 December 2018

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, Communications Manager, UCD Research and Innovation, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: + 353 1 716 3712.

Editors Notes

Kypha is a clinically focused diagnostics company developing, validating and commercialising specialised biomarker testing capable of providing reliable and timely results in any clinical setting, in order to dramatically improve the way autoimmune and inflammatory conditions are monitored and treated. www.kypha.net

Biosensia, which operates as a Kypha wholly-owned subsidiary at NovaUCD is a science and engineering focused company established to develop, manufacture, and commercialize multi-analyte quantitative and qualitative assays on a low-complexity, CLIA-waived testing platform. The company also offers contract assay development and manufacturing services, and its facilities are ISO 13485-certified. www.biosensia.com