Foundation Medicine Announces $42.5 Million Series B Financing

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foundation Medicine today announced the completion of a $42.5 million Series B financing. In this round, public crossover funds Deerfield Management Company, L.P., Casdin Capital, Redmile Group and strategic investors Roche Venture Fund and WuXi Corporate Venture Fund joined founding investor Third Rock Ventures and current venture capital backers Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. One undisclosed fund and one undisclosed strategic investor also joined the round. Foundation Medicine’s board of directors remains unchanged.

“In just two years, Foundation Medicine has turned promising science into an established business that is changing the way cancer is treated”

“In just two years, Foundation Medicine has turned promising science into an established business that is changing the way cancer is treated,” said William Slattery, partner at Deerfield Management Company, L.P. “While the medical world readily accepts that genomic drivers are the key to matching patients with cancer to the best treatment for their disease, Foundation Medicine has successfully brought this concept to clinical practice. Their single, comprehensive assay uncovers cancer-driving pathways in a patient’s tumor and can inform treatment decisions. We look forward to supporting the company’s continued commercial acceleration.”

The proceeds from the financing will help Foundation Medicine expand commercial operations, scale laboratory capabilities and develop additional genomic profiling and information services. FoundationOne™ is a genomic assay for all solid tumors that identifies oncogenic alterations in the tumor and provides a concise report to help physicians match patients with the targeted drugs or clinical trials that may be best suited for their unique cancer. Launched in June 2012, FoundationOne has already been ordered by more than 400 physicians from 16 countries.

“Over 80 percent of cancer care occurs in the community. It is critical that patients and oncologists have access to information to help them understand what treatment options may be available,” said Krishna Yeshwant, M.D., partner, Google Ventures. “Genomic data, combined with clinical outcomes as more patients are treated, will inform and improve the development of new cancer drugs and serve as a powerful resource for patients. We are excited to continue our collaboration with Foundation Medicine as they work to bring genomics to clinical medicine and impact the care of millions.”

“It has been our privilege to serve our initial physician clients and their patients,” said Michael Pellini, M.D., president and CEO of Foundation Medicine. “Their stories and early successes are the primary motivation for our work and we are grateful to have assembled such an outstanding group of investors to support our mission. The financial and strategic capabilities of this syndicate will help us take Foundation Medicine to the next level.”

About FoundationOne^TM

FoundationOne is a fully informative genomic profile that complements traditional cancer decision tools and often expands treatment options by matching each patient with targeted therapies that may be relevant to the molecular changes in their tumor. Using next-generation sequencing, FoundationOne interrogates all genes somatically altered in human cancers that are validated targets for therapy or unambiguous drivers of oncogenesis based on current knowledge. It reveals all classes of genomic alterations including base substitutions, insertions, deletions, copy number alterations and select rearrangements. Each patient’s genomic profile is reported to the physician matched with targeted therapies and clinical trials that may be relevant based on the molecular blueprint of their tumor. Results are supported by the latest scientific and medical evidence. FoundationOne has been optimized to fit easily into the clinical workflow of a practicing oncologist. It is available for all solid tumors and clinical grade results can be obtained from as little as 50ng of DNA obtained from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor tissue samples. FoundationOne is a laboratory-developed test performed at Foundation Medicine’s CLIA-certified facility and is currently available for all solid tumor types. Please visit www.foundationone.com for more information.

About Foundation Medicine

Foundation Medicine is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient’s unique cancer. The company’s initial clinical assay, FoundationOne^TM, is a fully informative genomic profile to identify a patient’s individual molecular alterations and match them with relevant targeted therapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicine’s molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit www.foundationmedicine.com.

Foundation Medicine® is a registered trademark, and FoundationOne^TM is a trademark of Foundation Medicine, Inc.