Startup Tackles Cancer
Tucked in a Tysons Corner coworking space, a four-person health IT startup is working to improve cancer treatments using software, genomics, and proteomics research. It's not the cure to cancer but certainly a more precise way to treat it with fewer side effects.
Launched a year ago, Pertherais now telling the world of its ability to use data analytics software and a tissue sample to determine the best way to treat that person's disease. Perthera CEO Dr.Craig Liddell says every cancer is different and highly personalized, and even two cancers in the same patient could be drastically different. The companyfine tunes what type of treatment is best based on a patient's cancer type and genetics. (It's like the perfect Pandora playlist... with higher stakes.) The company has already helped over 25 stage 4 cancer patients and expects to have over 100 by the end of the year.
Craig holds a report Perthera generates off a tissue sample. He was brought in a few months ago to market the service to doctors in smaller regions treating stage 4 cancer patients, as well as insurance companies. It costs $5,000 for the company's proprietary software to run analytics and generate a report. Its analytics database of patients and their results will be highly valuable to the general medical community. But more importantly, pinpointing more accurate treatments could be cheaper and more effective than some of the highly toxic meds that are often prescribed. The company hopes to move into earlier cancer stages as the stage 4 results are proven and some clinical trials are completed.
The company has its roots with Dendy Young (former GTSI and Falcon Microsystems exec) who during a tour of George Mason University's Prince William campus, learned about the use of proteomics to target cancer treatments. He helped the researchers spin the company out of the university with some of his own funding. Craig, a biotech entrepreneur who led Paradigm Genetics and Artesian Therapeutics, came to the US from Australia in '86. He's now raising $1M in seed capital for Perthera from angels to expand the company infrastructure and eventually work up to 1,000 patients.
