CancerIQ Raises $14M Series B Funding to Improve Access to Innovations in Cancer Early Detection and Prevention

Feyi Olopade Ayodele and Olufunmilayo Olopade, MD.
(PHOTO: BUSINESS WIRE)
Feyi Olopade Ayodele and Olufunmilayo Olopade, MD. (PHOTO: BUSINESS WIRE)

CancerIQ Raises $14M Series B Funding to Improve Access to Innovations in Cancer Early Detection and Prevention

CHICAGO -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- CancerIQ, the platform powering early cancer detection and prevention across broad patient populations, announced it closed a $14 million Series B
financing round co-led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHI) and Amgen Ventures. McKesson Ventures,
OSF Ventures (the investment arm of OSF HealthCare, a current CancerIQ customer), as well as CancerIQ’s Series
A lead investor, HealthX Ventures, also participated in the Series B round.

The new funding comes one month after a report from the President’s Cancer Panel calling for “urgent and immediate action” to close gaps in cancer screening, risk assessment, and timely follow-up care — particularly among diverse, uninsured
or underinsured, and rural populations.

Systemic access barriers have created stark inequality when it
comes to preventive cancer care in the United States. For example, Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of breast cancer and 41% more likely to die of the disease than white women. These issues are compounded by the 9.5 million screenings missed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to an increase in late-stage cancer diagnoses that are more costly and have ag reater
impact on quality of life and outcomes than early-stage diagnoses.

Two Black female co-founders are on a mission to solve this
problem.

“The cancer research community has made great strides in cancer prevention and treatment,” said Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade, MD, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of CancerIQ. “But now we must accelerate and scale the clinical pipeline, so a diverse population of patients — those receiving care at academic medical centers and community hospitals alike — can benefit from these advances.” D.r Olopade
served on the National Cancer Advisory Board and is one of the field’s foremost authorities on cancer genetics and precision oncology.

“CancerIQ’s vision is to end cancer as we know it by eliminating
health disparities and democratizing access to the latest advances in cancer early detection and prevention,” added Feyi OlopadeA yodele, Co-founder and CEO of CancerIQ. “We started by making genetic testing more accessible and connecting patients to the right preventive services at the right time. This latest round of funding will help  
CancerIQ
reach more patients and connect to more innovations thatp romise to transform cancer from a deadly disease to a manageable condtiion.”

CancerIQ’s precision health platform, which is being used by
clinicians at more than 180 locations across the country, makes it easy to determine a patient’s individual risk of cancer based on family history, genetics, behavior, and other factors, and then connect them to the corresponding care pathways. Those pathways range from MRIs, prophylactic surgeries
and vaccinations to at-home screening kits, multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests, lifestyle interventions and other services such as clinical trials, educational materials, and social resources. CancerIQ is embedded directly into EMR workflows so clinicians in any care setting have the latest genomics
research, clinical guidelines, and life sciences innovations at their fingertips.

“CancerIQ’s platform creates the critical infrastructure needed to bring cancer-focused precision health into the actual clinical
workflow for every clinician, at every heath system,” saidT aha Jangda, General Partner, HealthX Ventures. “This enables clinicians across service lines to perform cancer risk stratification much sooneri n the care journey, and to steer patients down a precision pathway to prevention and early detection. This is needed now more than ever given the backlog
of cancer screenings from the pandemic.”

The new funding will help CancerIQ grow its precision health paltform, strengthen its partnership ecosystem, and expand its health system network. Following a recent series of key executive hires, thec ompany also plans to hire 50 team members to meet the rising demand for more efficient and innovative cancer prevention services.

“CancerIQ is poised to address a critical need in cancer care .
Through early detection and addressing health care disparities, it is possible to provide patients better access to today’s innovations” said Joel Krikston, Managing Director and Head of Strategic InnovationA lliances, Merck GHI Fund. “We are committed to partnering with innovative companies to improve the quality of health outcomes for all paitents, and we look forward to furthering this mission with CancerIQ.”

CancerIQ is the only cancer-focused precision health platform
that empowers healthcare providers to detect cancer earlier and prevent it altogether across all patient populations. Integrated directly into real-time EHR workflows, CancerIQ makes it easy to gather comprehensive patient data, automatically map it to the latest evidence-based guidelines, and expand access to personalized care plans, cutting-edge clinical solutions, and genomic innovations. Learn more at canceriq. com, follow CancerIQ on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, and check out
our latest eBook.

Latest Stories





Latest Podcast

Sydney Blaylock-The local skater with national experience