INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
One of the more notable startups using artificial intelligence to understand and fight cancer has raised $45 million more in funding to
learning to better map the pathology of cancer, an essential component of understanding the origins and progress of a disease with seemingly
approvals for products it is developing in areas such as biomarkers and prognostic capabilities.It also plans to use the funding to continue
developing better ways of diagnosing and ultimately fighting the disease, as well as exploring further commercial opportunities for its
work, specifically within the bio-pharmaceutical industry.This round is being led by Healthcare Venture Partners, with previous investor
Breyer Capital, Kenan Turnacioglu and other funds participating
The company is not disclosing its valuation, but PitchBook noted that a first close of this round (when it raised $33 million) put the
valuation at $208 million
That would value Paige now at about $220 million with the $45 million close, more than three times its valuation in its previous round.Paige
its intellectual property related to the AI-based computational pathology that underpinned its work
These slides make up one of the biggest repositories of its kind in the world, and as all solutions and services built on machine learning
serious talent behind it.Much of the computational pathology being used by Paige had been developed by Dr Thomas Fuchs, who is known as
Computational Pathology at Memorial Sloan Kettering, as well as a professor of machine learning at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of
Medical Sciences.Fuchs co-founded Paige with Dr David Klimstra, chairman of the department of pathology at MSK, and Fuchs had originally
started out as the CEO of Paige, but was replaced earlier this year by Leo Grady, who joined from another bio-startup, Heartflow (another
company backed by Healthcare Venture Partners)
Fuchs is still supporting the company, but no longer in an executive role.In the nearly two years since it launched, there have been some
The company, which has around 30 employees today, has been the first to get an FDA breakthrough designation (which helps expedite the long
process of drug approvals in urgent areas where there are few or no other options for patients) for using AI in oncology pathology
in quarters as it might be with a more typical tech startup
Moving fast and breaking things is something to be avoided
So even with all of the above advances, there has yet to be any commercial products launched, nor is Grady giving any specific time frames
And when the company came out of stealth in 2018, it said it would be focusing on breast, prostate and other major cancers, although today
that has foxed many an investor also into backing the wrong horses, too, such as Theranos)
That makes the conversations challenging and short
Healthcare Venture Partners, in a statement
We believe Paige addresses many of these issues by enhancing the ability of clinical teams and pathologists to collaborate
Paige understands their needs and the team has built cutting-edge technologies to address them
