Barcelona based Flomics Biotech closes seed round of €1.000.000 to develop its multicancer screening solution

Flomics Biotech, a biotech company dedicated to genomics and early screening and diagnosis of complex diseases, such as cancer, announces the closing of a €1.000.000 seed round of investment, led by an international family office. The funds will be used to fuel pre-clinical trials for 5 different types of cancer.

Flomics Biotech, constituted in 2018, is based in the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) and created by researchers and entrepreneurs of the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). Flomics is operating in the field of genomics, liquid biopsy and next-generation sequencing (NGS) and is dedicated to the early diagnosis of cancer, with the objective of developing a ground-breaking multi-cancer detection test from a standard blood sample, supported by sophisticated bioinformatics, AI and machine learning algorithms.

The private financial round of €1.000.000, was led by an important US based Family Office, with an investment portfolio in biotech and technology, and complemented by several national and international business angels and by Arcano ImasD, the R&D investment vehicle managed by the financial firm Arcano Partners. This private financing round complements several public grants and subventions awarded to Flomics in 2021 surpassing €500.000 in non-diluted investment. Flomics counts with the support of CDTI and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, ACCIÓ from Generalitat de Catalunya and the European EIT Health Program.

“This financial support and the capital raised in the round will allow us to extend our preclinical studies with larger cohorts in the detection of different types of cancer in collaboration with several hospitals, in particular for colon and lung, the two types of cancers that are in more advanced stages of development. We will also continue to explore other opportunities in the development of diagnosis, prognosis and stratification solutions of other complex diseases, such as the Covid-19.” says João Curado, CEO and co-founder of Flomics.

Flomics main product is a multi-purpose second-generation liquid biopsy that enables early detection of multiple complex diseases such as cancer from a standard blood sample. Currently the technology is undergoing pre-clinical validation in collaboration with key collaborators such as Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and the Biobank of the Andalusian Public Health System. Flomics' objective is to enter the market with a screening kit for the detection of colon and lung cancer in 2024, with an updated version of 5-cancers in 2026. Aside from cancer research, Flomics has active collaborations in other projects with the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, the Sant Joan de Deu Hospital and Pangaea Oncology.

In addition to the development of solutions in oncology and other diseases, Flomics is already in the market, providing genomics services for different types of projects. These services include consulting in bioinformatics, in particular for the analysis of NGS sequencing data using the recently launched Flomics Stratus® cloud platform, available anywhere, anytime at: https://stratus.flomics.com/.

Second-generation liquid biopsy, NGS and RNA, the future of diagnostics.

The rapid development of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies has led to a considerable reduction of its operating costs and improved performance, favoring its use for analysis of biomarkers in biological fluids, known as liquid biopsies, targeting circulating nucleic acids in blood. Historically, studies have aimed at the detection of specific mutations on cell-free DNA (cfDNA), which has been revealed to suffer from several limitations. Flomics is working on a second-generation liquid biopsy that is based on a much more dynamic molecule which is the cell-free RNA (cfRNA). Flomics believes that cfRNA is the best nucleic acid to achieve a reliable early diagnosis from liquid biopsy because it allows quantifying the actual state of the cells even before the appearance of the first disease symptoms. Flomics proposes a new solution based on circulating cfRNAs, combining NGS and its proprietary bioinformatics platform Stratus® that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning mechanisms to identify biomarker signatures and produce a reliable disease classification and diagnosis, in particular for cancer. Cancer is one of the biggest health problems in the world, causing over 10 million deaths every year around the globe. Novel and less invasive diagnosis solutions are needed, focusing on early-stage testing, which is key to improve treatment success rates and to reduce mortality. Flomics believes its revolutionary second-generation liquid biopsy will provide actionable information in the much-needed early-stage cancer detection field.

About Flomics

Flomics Biotech, SL was founded in October 2018 in Barcelona, by the hand of experienced researchers and entrepreneurs from the Center of Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and is currently based in the vibrant Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB). Flomics co-founders are: João Curado (CEO), Luis Korrodi (CBO), Esther Lizano (CSO), André Guedes (COO) and Roderic Guigó (Advisor).

Flomics proprietary RNA-based liquid biopsy solution aims at early detection of different types of cancer, enabling more successful treatments and reducing mortality rates.