Biocartis raises €80m

At the end of November Biocartis announced that it has raised €80m in a private placement via an accelerated bookbuild offering of 6.4 million new shares, representing approximately 14% of the company's outstanding shares. „The significant amount raised in today’s private placement is an important milestone for Biocartis in securing funds for the further execution of its plans“, says Ewoud Welten, CFO of Biocartis. With the new capital Biocartis aims to fund the expansion of its Idylla test menu and applications, its sales and marketing activities, the ongoing increase of its cartridge manufacturing capacity, and working capital and other general corporate purposes. Idylla is a automated, real-time PCR based molecular diagnostics system, which was launched in September 2014.

Just two days ago Biocartis reached another milestone. It has received CE-IVD marking for two liquid biopsy tests to detect RAS mutations in circulating tumor DNA from patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). The Idylla ctKRAS Mutation Test detects 21 KRAS mutations, and the Idylla ctNRAS-BRAF Mutation Test detects 18 NRAS and five BRAF mutations. The tests have been developed under a partnership with German Merck KGaA aimed at improving diagnostic testing for patients with mCRC.