Strand looking to raise $20 mn for expansion

Bangalore-based Strand Life Sciences (SLS), a global life sciences and clinical genomics company, is looking to raise fresh funds in the range of between $20 million and $30 million to fund its expansion programme.

"We raised $10 million about 15 months ago in Series B funding to set up the centre for cancer genomics. We are further looking at another $20-30 million to fund our expansion programmes in other areas like eye-related diseases, cardiology and various inherited diseases and genetic disorders. We hope to close the deal by end of this year," Vijay Chandru, Chairman & CEO, SLS told reporters.

The funds will be raised from new investors from both within India and overseas, he said.

Strand today announced a partnership with Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd, a cancer care network, for offering genomics-based diagnostics for cancer. These diagnostic tests will support physicians, and their patients with tumor profiling of large number genes for 'actionable' mutations. The information about these mutations helps to identify targeted therapies and treatment choices early in the course of cancer care, said Dr Ajaikumar, Chairman & CEO, HCG.

Triesta Sciences, a unit of HCG and Strand Life Sciences together are setting up a new centre for genomics called Strand-Triesta Centre for Cancer Genomics with the aim of making genomics based diagnostics effective, accessible and affordable, he said.

This centre will enable the adoption of genomics-based tumor profiling for HCG patients. HCG will adopt the Strand-Triesta advanced cancer diagnostics as a new standard that defines the future of cancer care.

It is estimated that a million cases of cancer are being reported each year in India with a mortality rate of 50%. It is expected that the number of incidences of cancer will rise five-fold by 2025 thereby increasing the healthcare burden. Against this backdrop, the new 'standard-of-care' would help meet the growing cancer epidemic, Dr Ajaikumar added.