uly 27, 2017
As published in the San Antonio Express-News.
by Jesse Pound
San Antonio-based biotech company bioAffinity raised over $4 million as it plans to bring its new lung cancer test to market next year, according to securities filings.
The funding round, which closed this week, brings the company’s total capital raised to roughly $12 million since it was founded in 2014, CEO Maria Zannes said. The company is seeking to raise another $15 million to bring its test to market, Zannes said.
bioAffinity’s lung cancer test is non-invasive, analyzing the sputum, or phlegm, for signs of cancer. Zannes said bioAffinity aims to have its test commercialized in the third quarter of 2018.
The current method for early detection of lung cancer, which involves a low dose CT scan, has a false positive rate of more than 95 percent, he said. bioAffinity’s test could cut down on unnecessary health care costs associated with the false positives.
“Because of that high false positive rate, there’s a great need for an adjunct test, a companion test, like our test to lessen the unnecessary follow-up tests that can happen when you have a false positive,” Zannes said.
The company also created a therapeutic division last year and is doing animal testing with some compounds focused on cancer. Zannes said bioAffinity plans on partnering with a larger company to bring the compounds through the Food and Drug Administration approval process.
The company has 10 employees, including Zannes. It operates out of labs at the University of Texas-San Antonio and has a research partnership with UT Health San Antonio.
