Healthcare startup Paige has raised an additional $ 15 million to help diagnose cancer using clinical imaging data-enabled computer vision. Funding shows that while COVID-19 investments are receiving a lot of attention, AI-related efforts to fight cancer are also moving forward.
The idea is to use datasets related to treatment and genomics to train deep learning networks to detect breast, prostate and other major cancers. Paige creates computational pathology products to help pathologists deliver more accurate diagnoses to cancer patients and enable patients and their care teams to make faster and more informed treatment decisions.
New York-based Paige has raised more than $ 95 million to date. The last money came from Goldman Sachs Commercial Banking Division, while Healthcare Venture Partners added to a previous investment earlier this year. Funding brings Paige’s Series B, originally revealed in December, to $ 70 million. Paige recently added David Castelblanco, managing director of Goldman Sachs, to her board of directors.
“We really have an opportunity to accelerate the development of our products in multiple different tissue types, multiple types of cancer,” Paige CEO Leo Grady said in an interview with VentureBeat. “And we are seeing great interest from the biopharmaceutical industry and working together with them on a series of non-public agreements. With some of the big pharmaceutical companies, we can lean on them and make an additional investment. “
Paige will use the new capital to develop her personalized diagnostic and test products for the biopharmaceutical industry, while strengthening her position in clinical AI for pathologists. It is also developing the Paige platform for remote viewing and routine clinical practice.
“Another element has to do with COVID-19,” said Grady. “Most of us have had the opportunity to be able to work from home during this crisis, and to be able to connect with video conferences and calls and continue doing our work. But that has not been true for pathologists, who still primarily use microscopes to look at tissue and make the diagnosis. And, therefore, there is a greater demand and a greater interest in going digital and being able to work remotely and continue their work. We can invest more in this. “
Above: Paige’s team in New York.
Image Credit: Paige
Paige also has a partnership with Konica Minolta’s Invicro company to provide integrated pathology solutions to support pharmaceutical and biotech sponsors with their drug discovery and development initiatives.
Paige was founded in 2017 by Thomas Fuchs and her colleagues at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The company has around 50 employees and is hiring for various positions.
“We have been growing rapidly. And we are actively recruiting in a wide range of different roles, both in engineering and product development by AI scientists, data scientists, “said Grady. “We are also hiring across the country and internationally.”
Paige received the innovative FDA designation for computational pathology products, which could help her get approval of her products faster.
