Colorectal cancer testing startup Geneoscopy enrolled more than 14,000 people to take part in the human study of its technology — something CEO Andrew Barnell tells bizblip is crucial for the growth of the company.
Andrew Barnell, Geneoscopy CEO
“This is our FDA approval, pivotal study… it takes a long time to enroll patient populations and a lot of studies don’t actually get to the point where they can fully enroll,” Barnell said. “Beyond that, it’s also critical — the composition of the study — so it’s really important that the population of the study matches the ‘intended use’ population.”
Many medical studies have taken recent heat over not being representative from a race, ethnicity and socio-economic perspective compared to the population their treatment will likely serve.
“It’s really important that we actually over enrolled in some of the key demographic care characteristics including the African American population. African Americans are actually disproportionately affected by colorectal cancer, and so (we are) ensuring that we have enough of those folks in our study to ensure that we can demonstrate safety and effectiveness of our product for that patient population and ultimately help reduce some of those disparities.”
The St. Louis-based Geneoscopy was founded in 2015. The company is developing a screening methodology to noninvasively diagnose colorectal cancer using bio-markers in stool samples. The screening technology examines RNA in a stool sample to detect the cancer, but this simple test is just the first of what Barnell says will be a platform of tests. Broadening this technology could be used to detect, prevent, and guide treatment of a wide variety of gastrointestinal diseases.
The company has 50 full time employees, mostly scientists. Last November it closed a $105M Series B led by Lightchain Capital and NT Investments with participation from Morningside Ventures, Labcorp, Cultivation Capital, BioGenerator Ventures and Innovatus Capital Partners. Prior to that, it raised a total of $7.9M, mostly from a 2019 Series A. Other investors include Missouri Technology Corporation, Billiken Angels Network, the Dorm Room Fund and individual investor Rodger Riney.
Links:
On bizblip:
Genoscopy picks up key certification for lab
Geneoscopy touts importance of study composition
Genoscopy presents recruitment study findings
