Life sciences firm GRAIL is planning to raise around $1bn in a Series B financing to advance the development of its blood-based test for cancer screening.
The company received positive response from undisclosed private and strategic investors to invest around $1bn in a series B financing round.
The proceeds will be used to advance the development and validation of their blood-based test for cancer screening, which will need multiple clinical trials.
The trials include previously announced circulating cell-free genome atlas study, in addition to trials that are expected to sequence moe number of patients.
In addition, the firm will use proceeds to acquire a portion of stake in Illumina.
Illumina will change the supply and commercialization agreement with GRAIL to a market-based agreement. Its ownership will be decreased to less than 20% in GRAIL.
GRAIL current chairman and Illumina executive chairman Jay Flatley said: “We founded GRAIL a year ago to enable early cancer detection via a blood-based screening test powered by Illumina sequencing technology.
“This raise, when completed, will provide GRAIL the resources to develop its first products and embark on the large-scale trials required to demonstrate the stringent performance requirements of a cancer screening test.”
Illumina president and CEO Francis deSouz said: “This capital allows GRAIL to take on the significant technology, market, and regulatory challenges of developing and validating a blood-based cancer screening test.”