Financing to Advance IVD and RUO Product Development and to Expand Global Commercialization
Natick, MA, May 5, 2020—Pillar Biosciences, an NGS clinical cancer diagnostics company, today announced the closing of a $29.7 million Series C preferred stock financing. The financing will accelerate the expansion of Pillar’s in vitro diagnostic and research use only panels and advance Pillar’s global commercial outreach.
Pillar’s flagship technology, SLIMamp® target enrichment chemistry, enables automatable amplification of overlapping amplicons in a single tube from as little as 2.5ng DNA in less than 8 hours. Pillar’s complementary PiVAT® bioinformatics platform enables variant calling down to 1% VAF for virtually every type of variant with minimal computing resources and processing time.
For precision medicine to become widely accessible, pathologists need streamlined NGS workflows that deliver timely results, especially for first line cancer therapies. Pillar Biosciences’ technology and products focus on providing pathologists with productive solutions so that precision medicine can become the norm.
Recently, a Pillar custom product received approval from New York State Department of Health. Pillar was also granted CE approval for its first in vitro diagnostic panel, the Pillar® ONCO/Reveal® Dx Lung and Colon Cancer Assay, which guides the prescription of six different therapies simultaneously, reduces the need for repeat testing, and allows for treatment decisions in just 4 days.
Pillar Biosciences has made considerable progress towards ensuring global access to its suite of NGS panels and software. Pillar’s panels are compatible with Illumina®, Ion Torrent™, and MGI™ sequencing platforms. Pillar also recently secured distributors in Israel, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, and ASEAN countries.
“We are proud of what our customers have been able to accomplish with Pillar’s technology,” said Dr. Gang Song, founder and CEO of Pillar Biosciences. “Now we are building IVD products that will be accessible to every pathologist, so that every cancer patient can get the right therapy the first time.”
“We are a strong believer in using NGS tumor testing to make precision medicine the first line treatment,” said Simone Song, Senior Partner of ORI Healthcare Fund, which invested in Pillar’s Series A round and also led the Series C round. “Pillar’s SLIMamp® technology is fast, accurate, user friendly, and cost effective. We have confidence that Pillar will fulfill an unmet medical need and thus bring true benefits to cancer patients.”
