SAN FRANCISCO, June 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vineti, a pioneering cell and gene therapy software and analytics company, today announced it has closed its Series A funding round from GE Ventures, Mayo Clinic Ventures and new investors, DFJ and LifeForce Capital. The company received $13.75M in capital, which will be used to grow its team and to deliver the first cloud-based software solution to improve patient access, accelerate life-saving treatment delivery, and promote safety and regulatory compliance for individualized cell therapies.
The field of cell and gene therapy is growing dramatically, with a thriving portfolio of therapies progressing to commercial phase. Oncology remains the largest market in medicine and is expected to grow to $165 billion by 2021[1]. In just the last year, $5.7 billion was invested in companies in the cell and gene therapies field and over 800 clinical trials were initiated worldwide[2]. The first two CAR-T cell therapies are expected to launch into market later this year.
While many of these emergent therapeutic advances are transforming patient outcomes, the therapies are extremely complex to produce and deliver. Arcane paper-driven processes in cell collection, therapeutic production and logistical delivery that have not kept pace with medical and digital innovation can limit their potential.
In cell and gene therapy, the process is a critical part of the product. The Vineti platform integrates logistics, manufacturing and clinical data to improve product performance overall and enable faster, broader access for patients. Caregivers and pharmaceutical pioneers are empowered to reach more patients sooner by partnering their therapies with a digital, data-driven platform focused on scalability, efficiency and safety.
“Physicians, medical researchers and pharmaceutical companies are working together to develop successful therapies, transitioning from a one-size-fits-all model to individualized treatments for each patient. Now, the process for creating and delivering these treatments can be as innovative as the therapies themselves,” said Amy DuRoss, CEO at Vineti. “We are developing the Vineti platform to help these treatments reach the patients who need them the most, and are confident the partnership between our advanced technologies and leading medical research will deliver better health outcomes across the globe.”
GE Ventures launched Vineti in response to GE Healthcare’s pharmaceutical customer requests to bridge the technology gap between individualized cell therapies and production capabilities. Automating the production and delivery of these treatments can help build a robust connection between this innovative field and the broader healthcare system. GE Ventures, Mayo Clinic and DFJ have invested in Vineti to ensure a clear, safe and efficient path forward for this exciting future in medicine.
“There’s a serious discrepancy between the accelerated development of life-saving cancer therapies and the supporting technologies required to deliver these treatments,” said Risa Stack, general manager of New Business Creation at GE Ventures and Vineti board member. “Vineti’s dream team of leading industry pioneers and software engineers have formed the first company to align innovation in research with innovation in how next-generation therapies are produced and delivered, putting them on equal ground for the first time. GE Ventures is committed to supporting Vineti as it continues to revolutionize the way therapies are developed and delivered.”
Vineti is positioned for success, founded by a globally respected team with experience in all aspects of the commercialization process. Vineti’s co-founding executives—Amy DuRoss, CEO; Heidi Hagen, chief strategy officer (CSO); Razmik Abnous, chief technology officer (CTO); and Malek Faham, chief science officer—are industry luminaries, working directly with customers to develop and implement the Vineti cloud-based platform from the ground up, to address the requirements of each link in the individualized therapy value chain.
In addition to offering an end-to-end value-chain software platform, Vineti provides intelligent analytics that can dramatically improve manufacturing, value chain operations and compliance, as well as clinical and commercial operations. The Vineti platform is available today directly from Vineti.
About Vineti, Inc.
Vineti is the first commercial cloud-based platform to expand patient access to life-saving cell and gene therapies. Vineti was co-founded by GE and the Mayo Clinic to solve the key challenges patients, medical providers, biopharmaceutical companies and regulators face in the delivery and commercialization of 21st century medicine. The Vineti platform integrates logistics, manufacturing and clinical data to improve product performance overall. Caregivers and pharmaceutical pioneers are empowered to help more patients more effectively and safely, treatments are better understood and improved over time, and most importantly, there’s an opportunity to provide greater health outcomes—and cures—to patients in need. For more information, please visit www.vineti.com. Sign up to follow @vinetiworks on https://twitter.com/vinetiworks.
About GE Ventures
GE Ventures identifies, scales and accelerates ideas that will help make the world work better. Focused on the areas of software, advanced manufacturing, energy and health care, GE Ventures combines equity investing, new business creation, licensing and technology transfer to deliver an innovation platform designed to drive growth for partners and GE. For more information, visit http://www.geventures.com, or follow on Twitter (@GE_Ventures) and LinkedIn.
About Mayo Clinic Ventures
Mayo Clinic Ventures helps bring Mayo Clinic inventions to the marketplace to improve medicine for the benefit of patients worldwide while generating revenue to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education and research. Learn more at http://ventures.mayoclinic.org/
About DFJ
DFJ is a venture capital firm that partners with extraordinary entrepreneurs who set out to change the world. Since 1985, DFJ's core funds have raised $5.5 billion. These funds have been invested in more than 500 companies, including Baidu, Box, Cylance, Nervana, Planet, Redfin, Skype, SolarCity, SpaceX, Tesla Motors, Twilio, Twitter, Tumblr, Unity, Yammer, and Zoox. DFJ works with companies at seed, early and growth stages, with the goal of creating iconic and lasting businesses. DFJ invests in emerging markets including consumer, enterprise, and disruptive technologies. Learn more at dfj.com.
[1] Cowen Therapeutic Categories Outlook 2017 Report
[2] Alliance for Regenerative Medicine 2016 Annual Report