Cancer treatment is evolving with a growing number of therapies designed to address specific targets expressed by tumors or genetic drivers of the disease. But for this precision medicine approach to work, a clinician must have detailed information about the patient’s tumors — more detail than what traditional diagnostics provide.
Waiv uses artificial intelligence to provide that insight, and the Paris-based startup is striking out on its own to expand access to its technologies. Along with its spinout from AI drug research company Owkin announced Thursday, the startup revealed $33 million in funding to support its growth goals.
Owkin takes a federated learning approach to the analysis of data from organizations such as cancer treatment centers and hospitals. The Paris-based company uses its technology to support the drug research of pharma industry partners, such as Sanofi and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Waiv was a diagnostics unit within Owkin that operated under the name OwkinDx. It developed and commercialized tests that use AI to predict biological indicators of a disease as well as patient outcomes. This technology found use identifying patients eligible for a treatment, in real world clinical settings and for research use by pharmaceutical companies. Waiv’s pharma customers include AstraZeneca and Merck.
OwkinDx operated for several years as a fully functional business unit within Owkin, Waiv CEO co-founder Meriem Sefta said in an email. She added that as the business matured, it reached a point where it was able to build its own equity story by securing its own investment.
“The spinout enables the company to move faster in bringing validated AI diagnostics to market, while continuing to innovate on the scientific and technological foundation already developed within the Owkin ecosystem,” Sefta said.
A growing number of companies offer AI technologies that inform drug selection in clinical care and clinical trials, many of them focused on cancer. Roche subsidiary Foundation Medicine, Tempus AI, and Caris Life Sciences are among the companies with AI technologies that analyze patient samples to help inform the choice of an appropriate cancer therapy.
Waiv analyzes multimodal oncology data, primarily digital pathology images. Sefta said these highly dimensional and rich images give a very detailed picture of a patient’s tumor. Waiv calls this approach AI-enabled precision testing. In a research setting, the technology can discover biological indicators of cancer to support drug R&D. In a clinical setting, these tests are integrated into existing digital pathology workflows, which Sefta said enables pathologists and clinicians to use the tools within routine diagnostic processes. Customers pay to use Waiv’s technology on a per test basis.
Waiv’s new financing was led by OTB Ventures and Alpha Intelligence Capital with additional participation from Serene Data Ventures, Karista, and SistaFund. Waiv said it will used the new capital to expand its clinical testing offerings and support commercial expansion globally.
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