CellMax Life has earned $9 million in Series A-1 venture funding, bringing their total funding to $14 million. The company aims to “fundamentally transform cancer care,” it said, using its multi-biomarker tech platforms to detect cancer earlier than traditional tests.
“We founded CellMax Life to transform how cancer is identified and managed in ways never before possible,” said Atul Sharam, CEO and co-founder of CellMax. “Early detection is the best defense against this asymptomatic disease -- when treatment costs are low and survival rates are high.”
Working toward that transformation, CellMax’s blood tests based on rare-cell and genomic tech platform will help to bring affordable risk-assessment, screening and targeted therapy selection to the globe. The company brings together Circulating Tumor DNA and Circulating Tumor Cells in its liquid biopsy to offer personalized cancer treatment “with immediate high clinical impact,” the company said.
“After several years of research and clinical testing, CellMax Life has developed a range of technologies to detect multiple cancer biomarkers in blood,” stated Dave Lawrence, advisor for Artiman Ventures. “CellMax Life’s clinically-proven blood test portfolio is effective across the cancer care spectrum, and especially so for early cancer detection.”
The additional $9 million the Sunnyvale, CA-based company has added brings the round to $14 million. It will go toward scaling commercial operations for its cancer blood test product portfolio. It will also help fund ongoing clinical trials and product development.
The funding round was led by Artiman and other Taiwanese investors, including Acer founder and honorable chairman Stan Shih. Shih noted in a statement that over half of global cancer deaths occur in Asia, a number that is increasing.
“This serious problem cannot be solved with traditional, expensive cancer drugs alone,” Shih said. “We invested in CellMax Life because with their breakthrough proven early detection CMx platform, they are leading a paradigm shift in cancer detection that will address the cancer in Asia cost-effectively and at scale.”
- here's the press release
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