Raw Ventures Invests in Inflammatix to Launch TriVerity, its Acute Infection Diagnosis Device
Inflammatix, a pioneering biotech firm developing cutting-edge precision medicine solutions, has successfully raised $57 million, with Raw Ventures among the investors.
The biotech company leverages machine learning and immune system related “big data” to create novel clinical diagnostics, and is backed by leading Silicon Valley venture funds such as Khosla Ventures. It aims to use the proceeds to take the company’s main product, TriVerity, through FDA clearance and accelerate its market launch.
TriVerity has already been designated as a breakthrough device by the FDA, a fact that underscores its potential to help emergency physicians diagnose patients with sepsis and, in case of a positive test, pinpoint the cause of the problem.
Acute infection and sepsis — a life-threatening condition caused by the body’s extreme response to an infection that leads to organ dysfunction and potential failure — are massive issues in healthcare. In the United States alone, they account for half of all hospital deaths and one-third of misdiagnosis-related harms, and represent a cost of $53 billion to the Medicare program.
Inflammatix’s solution, which reads the body’s immune response to an infection and identifies patterns of mRNA from white blood cells, can detect any infection and differentiate infection types. This results in a more accurate diagnosis, preventing potentially fatal mistakes, and reducing the burden placed on the hospital system. It is a problem that diagnostics giants such as Abbott and Roche have attempted to solve to no avail.
TriVerity is a rapid point-of-care system with a 1-minute hands-on time and turns around results in 30 minutes, providing emergency physicians with better insights that result in better decision-making. The device has already earned the Disruptive Technology Award by the AACC. It is currently under review with the FDA for regulatory clearance in the US.
Founded by Dr. Tim Sweeney, Jonathan Romanowsky, and Purvesh Khatri, the company has a solid executive team. It has already conducted clinical studies with top academic institutions, including Harvard and Stanford, and with two of the best hospital systems in the United States, the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, among others.
“Inflammatix is disrupting a critical industry by tackling what may seem like a narrow problem — identifying sepsis and its specific nature — but in reality, they’re saving countless lives. While previously it took 24 hours to diagnose this disease, their technology makes it possible to do so in an hour. This rapid diagnosis is crucial, particularly in emergency situations,” said Victoria Palatnik, Managing Partner at Raw Ventures.
Demonstrating its commitment to investing in high-growth potential startups globally and across multiple verticals including medtech, Raw Ventures has decided to back the firm given its solid product and strong product-market fit.
We expect that, as the TriVerity device obtains FDA clearance and becomes commercially available, it will revolutionize healthcare both from a personal — better diagnosis outcomes and improved patient lives — and institutional — a less-burdened system — point of view, resulting in an enhanced quality of life for all.
Disclaimer: The TriVerity Test System is not for sale. It is currently pending FDA clearance and has not received marketing approval or clearance from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction.