In a story originally reported by LexLatin and brought to our attention by LAVCA, the private venture capital firm Fondo Alerce has invested in Chilean biotech startup GeneproDX. This funding will go to support research into GeneproDX thyroid cancer detection research, called Thyroid Print, which strives to improve detection rates.
Legal firm BAZ|DLA Piper helped GeneproDX raise the funding, which will contribute to what GeneproDX hope will be a $13M round. This round was one of the largest raised by a biotech company in Chile.
GeneproDC was awarded ‘Startup of the Year‘ in 2016. According to founder, Hernán González, the accuracy of the test will drastically lower the number of surgeries for this disease in Chile and save the medical system up to US$10M a year. He claims that currently, 75% of preventative thyroid cancer surgery is unnecessary, but unavoidable due to the state of available testing methods. ThyroidPrint will make testing 100% accurate and prevent unnecessary surgery.
Read more about GeneproDX:
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Medical School coverage