Tethys Raises Third Round

Tethys Bioscience, an Emeryville, Calif.-based developer of multi-biomarker technology, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series C funding. Intel Capital led the round, and was joined by return backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and MDV. The company has now raised a total of $54 million, including a $5.3 million Series A round in 2005 from MDV.

PRESS RELEASE

Tethys Bioscience today announced that it has reached two significant milestones in its drive to release Tethys Diabetes PreDxTM, a multi-biomarker technology that provides a more complete picture of an individual’s future risk of developing diabetes.  The company received its latest round of funding (Series C), and also received the licensing of its CLIA Lab by the State of California   Both moves place Tethys Bioscience in a strong position to establish itself as a leader in the emerging field of personalized predictive medicine and to achieve its goal of helping to stem the burgeoning epidemic of chronic, high-burden metabolic disease. Tethys Diabetes PreDxTM will be generally available in the first half of 2009.

The new round of funding is led by Intel Capital, which was created specifically to invest in innovation and has a strong interest in the emerging field of predictive personalized medicine. This latest financing, a process begun with earlier investments from some of the leading venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, results in a total of $54 million in financing, to date

“We’re very pleased to receive this round of financing from our investors, and  believe it supports our vision to dramatically improve the detection and treatment, and ultimately prevention, of chronic diseases,” said Mickey Urdea, CEO of Tethys Bioscience. “It gives us the resources to accelerate our work in this critical field, and to introduce a technology that enables a clinically simple blood test that provides an objective means to identify individuals at highest risk for diabetes. Our test will give medical professionals, and their patients, the opportunity to intervene and modify the risk before irreversible damage occurs

Tethys Bioscience also announced the licensing of its clinical lab by the State of California.  This marks a significant step forward for the company, enabling it to make its testing services available for sale and to offer test results obtained in Tethys’ own laboratory, where the technology was also developed.

There is a very large market for early detection technology enabling personalized preventive efforts in diabetes and other chronic diseases. It is estimated that up to 7% of the population, or nearly 21 million people, have diabetes, with more than six million of those currently undiagnosed.  Further, the number of individuals at risk for diabetes is estimated to be greater than double the number of those with diabetes.  Tethys Diabetes PreDxTM involves a simple to administer blood test, which fits easily into current clinical practice and provides clinically important, personalized risk information – while matching or outperforming traditional clinical risk scores and measures of glucose dysregulation or insulin resistance. 

About Tethys Bioscience

Tethys Bioscience is dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel biological markers – biomarkers – that provide a practical tool to address the growing global healthcare challenge of chronic metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Tethys Bioscience comes to market with a unique combination: management, research, and commercialization teams with extensive experience in diagnostic innovation, strategic alliances with world-class researchers and partners, and a solid financial foundation to help transform the management of chronic diseases with personalized, preventive solutions that aid every constituency: patients, doctors, and the healthcare system as a whole.