Icelandic firm deCODE Genetics will expand its offerings to the clinical laboratory setting in the United States through a spinoff company backed by several venture capital firms. Known as NextCODE Health, the new company is based in Cambridge, Mass., and is operating a CLIA-certified laboratory. It is funded with $15 million in series A venture capital from Polaris Partners and ARCH Venture Partners. deCODE Genetics has the technological chops to predict the genetic susceptibility in individuals of more than 40 medical conditions, including heart attacks and adult-onset diabetes, which are big cost-drivers for the U.S. population. But deCODE has had a bumpy history since its founding in the mid-1990s. To date it has offered a single genetic test—an assay priced far higher than comparative offerings in the United States. It filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and was purchased by a consortium of venture capital firms for $14 million. Drug giant Amgen acquired deCODE last year for $415 million. The deal was financed primarily with offshore cash in order to avoid U.S. regulatory review but likely makes it difficult for deCODE to directly service the American market. High-ranking former deCODE Genetics executives are running NextCODE Health. Hannes Smarason, who served as […]
Icelandic firm deCODE Genetics will expand its offerings to the clinical laboratory setting in the United States through a spinoff company backed by several venture capital firms.
Known as NextCODE Health, the new company is based in Cambridge, Mass., and is operating a CLIA-certified laboratory. It is funded with $15 million in series A venture capital from Polaris Partners and ARCH Venture Partners.
deCODE Genetics has the technological chops to predict the genetic susceptibility in individuals of more than 40 medical conditions, including heart attacks and adult-onset diabetes, which are big cost-drivers for the U.S. population.
But deCODE has had a bumpy history since its founding in the mid-1990s. To date it has offered a single genetic test—an assay priced far higher than comparative offerings in the United States. It filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and was purchased by a consortium of venture capital firms for $14 million. Drug giant Amgen acquired deCODE last year for $415 million. The deal was financed primarily with offshore cash in order to avoid U.S. regulatory review but likely makes it difficult for deCODE to directly service the American market.
High-ranking former deCODE Genetics executives are running NextCODE Health. Hannes Smarason, who served as deCODE Genetics’ chief financial officer between 1997 and 2004, is now NextCODE’s chief executive officer. Jeff Gulcher, M.D., deCODE’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, is serving as president and chief scientific officer.
“Our vision is to transform patient diagnosis and resultant care through the rapid and accurate use of genome sequence data, and we are deploying the most powerful tools ever developed to make this vision a reality,” Smarason said. “These tools will enable us to provide clinically relevant insights to physicians and geneticists with unrivaled speed and accuracy. We are proud to build on deCODE’s legacy of discovery as we deliver capabilities needed to meet the urgent needs of patients and physicians today.”
NextCODE has struck a research initiative in oncology and pediatrics with Boston Children’s Hospital and universities in Europe, Australia, and Asia.
Takeaway: The reshaping of deCODE Genetics into a new venture may finally pay dividends.
