Cadex Genomics TM Announces $1.5M Seed Financing to Acquire Intellectual Property for Cancer Therapy Monitoring Assay and Expand Clinical Studies

    REDWOOD CITY, CA, February 21, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Cadex Genomics, Corp., a Redwood City-based biotechnology diagnostic firm offering Alibrex, an advanced blood-based assay for monitoring stage IV solid tumor cancer therapy, today announced the closing of a $1.5M seed financing round. The investment round was led by the founders, with participation from a group of angel investors, most of whom are practicing physicians.

Alibrex is based on over a decade of research plus issued and pending patents involving cell-free DNA. The Alibrex assay indicates if a line of stage IV solid tumor cancer therapy is not working within two weeks after therapy commences, enabling the oncologist to adjust the patient's treatment. Alibrex is based on routine venous blood draws that are analyzed using high reliability, low cost, and fast turnaround PCR technology.

"We are very excited to close our seed financing round, including oncologists, who understand the challenges facing current cancer therapy monitoring," said Cadex Genomics CEO and Founder, Bill Haack. "The seed round of funding allows us to move forward with our business plan, allowing us to expand the previous clinical studies and to acquire rights to all of the relevant intellectual property, including issued and pending patents."

As part of the acquisition of these intellectual property rights, Dr. Sudhir Sinha has joined our team. "We are also delighted that Dr. Sinha, a world-leading research scientist in this field, will be joining the Cadex Genomics team as our Chief Science Officer," added Mr. Haack.

"There is a growing need to match mutational analysis assays with a mutation agnostic diagnostic assay that can more rapidly guide and inform cancer therapy for a wide range of patients," said Scott Kopetz, M.D, Ph.D., FACP, Department of Gastrointestinal Medicine Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Kopetz and Dr. Sinha presented results of a study at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting where Alibrex identified non-responders with 100% positive predictive value. Multiple leading cancer centers in the US and Canada will be participating in clinical studies with Alibrex during 2019 to further analyze the assay in stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and stage IV colon tumors.

Joining Bill Haack and Dr. Sinha on the Cadex Genomics founding executive team are Greg Schafer as Chief Commercial Officer, Dr. Gary Spitzer as Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Patrick Hall as SVP/Medical Affairs. Messrs. Haack, Schafer and Hall worked together on the successful commercialization of OncotypeDx Breast® assay at Genomic Health ®. Dr. Spitzer is a practicing oncologist who was previously the Director of Clinical Validity and Clinical Utility of Precision Medical Tests in Cancer for the Palmetto GBA MolDx® program.

Crowell & Moring LLP advised Cadex Genomics on the seed financing round and the acquisition of the Alibrex-related intellectual property rights.

About Cadex Genomics and Alibrex

Cadex Genomics is a privately-held molecular diagnostic assay company. Alibrex is a blood-based assay that determines if a stage IV solid tumor cancer patient is not responding to a current line of therapy. Alibrex is based on issued and pending patents. Alibrex and Cadex Genomics are trademarks of Cadex Genomics, Corp. For more information, please visit our website https://cadexgenomics.com.

All product names, company names, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this release are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, trademarks, and brands does not imply endorsement.

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