Inflammatix Secures $102 Million in Series D Financing Led by D1 Capital Partners to Commercialize Novel Host Response Diagnostics
Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today the closing of a $102 million Series D round of financing to support development and commercialization of its novel immune response diagnostics portfolio. D1 Capital Partners led the round, with participation from the company’s existing investors, including Northpond Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Think.Health, and OSF Healthcare Ventures.
Sepsis caused more than five million deaths annually worldwide before the COVID-19 pandemic, and severe COVID-19 has been recognized as viral sepsis. In addition, antibiotic resistance is directly responsible for more than 700,000 deaths annually worldwide. Traditional methods for diagnosing acute infections are slow and are often inaccurate because they only look for pathogens in the bloodstream, despite the fact that most infections never enter the bloodstream. As a result, patients with suspected infection are often inappropriately treated with antibiotics, contributing to antibiotic resistance. Sepsis is often missed altogether.
Inflammatix’s diagnostics rapidly read the patient’s immune response to infections across multiple mRNA biomarkers using machine learning algorithms. The company’s tests can identify the presence and type of infection (viral or bacterial), and the risk of severe disease, including severe COVID-19, to enable physicians to make more informed decisions. The tests are designed to be run on the company’s sample-to-answer, cartridge-based, point-of-care Myrna™ test system, which produces results in under 30 minutes.
The funds will enable regulatory clearance and global commercialization of the Myrna system, and the InSep™ acute infection and sepsis test, which is designed to enable improved triage and decision-making in the emergency department and other acute care settings. Funds will also support continued development of the company’s pipeline of diagnostic tests, including the ViraBac EZ™ acute infection test. Virabac EZ is designed to be run from a simple fingerstick to identify whether a suspected infection is bacterial or viral, helping physicians in primary care, urgent care, and other outpatient clinical settings to determine when to prescribe antibiotics.
“We are enthusiastic about the transformative potential of Inflammatix’s host response diagnostic approach to significantly improve two major issues in healthcare today: the inefficient, and often inaccurate, diagnosis of infection and sepsis, and the over-prescription of antibiotics,” said James Rogers, Analyst at D1 Capital Partners. “We are delighted to lead this round and look forward to the upcoming commercialization of the first of these novel tests, and to playing a role in the continued development of additional indications for this unique diagnostics approach.”
“We are thrilled to welcome D1 Capital Partners to our strong investor syndicate, and look forward to bringing host response diagnostics to market,” said Inflammatix CEO and Co-Founder Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D. “By quickly providing actionable information about disease, Inflammatix expects to equip physicians to make better clinical decisions that benefit both patients and healthcare systems.”
