A blood test developed by Johns Hopkins University researchers to incorporate earlier cancer detection into routine medical care will be developed by a new company called Thrive Earlier Detection Corp., which has raised $110 million in a Series A financing, the largest outside investment ever by a licensee of a Johns Hopkins technology.
Thrive will commercialize CancerSEEK, a liquid biopsy test designed to detect multiple cancer types at earlier stages of disease. It was developed by cancer research pioneers Drs. Bert Vogelstein, Kenneth Kinzler and Nickolas Papadopoulos at Johns Hopkins. The three researchers are among the founders of Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx), another Johns Hopkins spinoff that provides advanced genome testing products and services.
Alongside the CancerSEEK technology, Johns Hopkins also has licensed to Thrive a DNA sequencing technology, Safe-SeqS, and a suite of supporting biomarker technologies.
“This is a milestone moment in the development of Johns Hopkins’ biotech ecosystem,” said Christy Wyskiel, head of Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, in a prepared statement. “Johns Hopkins researchers are at the forefront of advancements in cancer screening technology, making Baltimore fertile ground for the commercialization of these discoveries into products that revolutionize healthcare.”
CancerSEEK interrogates genomic mutations in circulating tumor DNA and cancer-associated protein markers in plasma to identify abnormalities that are common across multiple cancers. CancerSEEK has received Breakthrough Device designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the detection of genetic mutations and proteins associated with pancreatic and ovarian cancers.
To complement colonoscopy, mammography and other screening tools, CancerSEEK is designed to be used in routine medical care, with the goal of identifying multiple cancer types at earlier stages. To support physicians and patients in acting upon the results of the test, Thrive aims to offer an integrated service that provides support in result interpretation, confirmatory diagnostic testing and guidance for additional clinical care where appropriate. In addition, drawing upon demographic and phenotypic information, historical clinical data, radiology and pathology imaging, behavioral data, information from retrospective clinical studies of relevant cohorts, and other sources, Thrive intends to create a learning loop that fine-tunes test performance and expands the number of people who can benefit from earlier cancer screening over time.
A prospective study of CancerSEEK in healthy individuals, the DETECT study, is under way to better understand its performance and how to implement its findings in patient care. The study is led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in partnership with Geisinger and Thrive. Study enrollment is complete and the data are being analyzed.
In a retrospective study of multiple cancer types published in Science in 2018, Johns Hopkins said CancerSEEK was shown to perform with greater than 99% specificity and with sensitivities ranging from 69% to 98% for the detection of five cancer types – ovarian, liver, stomach, pancreas and esophageal – for which there are no screening tests available for average-risk individuals.
“We envision a future where routine preventive care includes a blood test for cancer, just as patients are now routinely tested for early stages of heart disease, said Vogelstein, Clayton Professor of Oncology in the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a statement. “Such testing does not have to be a scary, expensive, or complicated process. We know that if cancer is caught early enough, it often can be cured.”
Third Rock Ventures led the Series A financing, with participation from Section 32, Casdin Capital, Biomatics Capital, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, Invus, Exact Sciences, Cowin Venture, Camden Partners, Gamma 3 LLC and others.
Steven Kafka, Ph.D., partner at Third Rock Ventures and former president and chief operating officer at Foundation Medicine, will serve as Thrive’s chief executive officer and director; Christoph Lengauer, Ph.D., partner at Third Rock Ventures, former chief scientific officer at Blueprint Medicines, is co-founder and chief innovation officer and director; and Isaac Kinde, M.D., Ph.D., co-inventor of the technology enabling CancerSEEK, is co-founder and head of research and innovation.
Under the terms of a license agreement between Johns Hopkins and Thrive, the university and Vogelstein, Kinzler and Papadopoulos are entitled to a share of royalties on future sales of products sold by Thrive. Johns Hopkins and Vogelstein, Kinzler and Papadopoulos also own equity in Thrive.
