ArcherDX has raised a $35 million series A round to grow its targeted sequencing assay business. The gene fusion detection specialist will use the money to grow its commercial operations in the U.S. and overseas while building out the companion diagnostic program that landed it a deal with Celgene.
Boulder, Colorado-based ArcherDX offers a range of NGS-based products to enable researchers to analyze solid and liquid samples taken from cancer patients. The tests can detect the novel gene fusions and variants that dictate whether a patient is likely to respond to a treatment, and provide information on expression and copy number variation.
ArcherDX has expanded its portfolio and built up its business since spinning out of Enzymatics after its takeover by Qiagen in 2015. In that time, the NGS assay specialist has expanded its companion diagnostic operation, notably by striking a deal with Celgene covering a test to support CC-122.
Now, Boulder Ventures and PBM Capital Group have co-led a $35 million investment to equip the company to build on its progress to date. Longwood Fund and Peierls Foundation also contributed to the series A round.
ArcherDX has earmarked some of the cash for the expansion of its domestic salesforce. International commercial operations are also due to get a boost as a result of the cash injection. The rest of the money will go toward the growth of the companion diagnostic program and the development of the next wave of IVDs coming down the pipeline.
“This round of funding, and the addition of [Boulder Ventures’] Kyle to our board, will help us to execute on our mission of providing the best molecular pathology tools both in research and clinical settings on a global scale,” ArcherDX CEO Jason Myers said in a statement.