GRAIL Plans to Raise in Excess of $1B in Series B Funding
January 05 2017 - 4:05PM
Business Wire
Investment by Strategic Industry Partners Would
Enable GRAIL to Expand Clinical Validation of Blood Test for
Early-Stage Cancer Detection
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN), today announced that GRAIL has
received indications of interest to invest approximately $1B for
its Series B financing, primarily from undisclosed private and
strategic investors. GRAIL intends to raise additional capital in
the Series B financing from other investors and has engaged Goldman
Sachs as a placement agent in connection with the contemplated
additional financing. GRAIL intends to close the Series B prior to
the end of the first quarter.
GRAIL will use the proceeds for continued development and
validation of their blood-based test for cancer screening, which
will require large-scale clinical trials including the previously
announced Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas study as well as other
trials that are expected to sequence hundreds of thousands of
patients. Additionally, proceeds will be used to repurchase a
portion of Illumina’s stake.
“We founded GRAIL a year ago to enable early cancer detection
via a blood-based screening test powered
by Illumina sequencing technology,” said
Jay Flatley, Executive Chairman of Illumina and current Chairman of
GRAIL. “This raise, when completed, will provide GRAIL the
resources to develop its first products and embark on the
large-scale trials required to demonstrate the stringent
performance requirements of a cancer screening test.”
Given the potential success of the Series B, and GRAIL’s plan to
aggressively invest that capital, Illumina has decided to
accelerate their path to independence, which will result in GRAIL
becoming one of Illumina’s largest customers over time. Illumina
will modify the supply and commercialization agreement with GRAIL
to a market-based agreement and will no longer have representation
on the Grail Board of Directors. As part of this transaction
Illumina’s ownership will become slightly less than 20 percent and
GRAIL will be treated as a cost-method investment.
“We are very excited about the progress the GRAIL team has made
in the last year,” said Francis deSouza, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Illumina. “This capital allows GRAIL to take
on the significant technology, market, and regulatory challenges of
developing and validating a blood-based cancer screening test. This
outcome maximizes value to Illumina by creating one of our largest
customers of sequencing instruments and consumables over time,
providing royalties on future GRAIL tests and through appreciation
of our ownership interest.”
GRAIL’s Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Huber, added, “We are
honored to have world-class investors who support our goal of
reducing global cancer mortality through early detection —
especially the invaluable support we received from Illumina during
our start-up phase – and we look forward to the next phase of our
growth.”
About Illumina, Inc.
Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the
genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as the global
leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving
customers in the research, clinical, and applied markets. Our
products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology,
reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments. To
learn more, visit www.illumina.com and follow @illumina.
About GRAIL
GRAIL is a life sciences company whose mission is to detect
cancer early when it can be cured. GRAIL combines the power of
high-intensity sequencing (ultra-broad and ultra-deep sequencing),
leading-edge computer science, and large population-scale clinical
studies to enhance the scientific understanding of cancer biology
and develop a blood test for early-stage cancer detection. The
company has secured over $100 million in Series A financing from
Illumina, Inc. and ARCH Venture Partners, with participating
investors including Bezos Expeditions, Bill Gates, Sutter Hill
Ventures, and GV (formerly Google Ventures). For more information,
please visit www.grail.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties. Examples of forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, statements we make regarding the
expected availability dates for new products and services and FDA
submission dates and intentions for certain products and services.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those in any forward-looking statements include the
risk that GRAIL is not able to raise the amounts contemplated in is
its Series B financing to reduce Illumina’s ownership stake below
20% and achieve the planned deconsolidation of GRAIL’s financial
results in Illumina’s financials statements, challenges inherent in
developing, manufacturing, and launching new products and services,
and the other factors that are detailed in our filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent
filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, or in information disclosed in
public conference calls, the date and time of which are released
beforehand. We do not intend to update any forward-looking
statements after the date of this release.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006393/en/
Illumina, Inc.Investors:Rebecca Chambers,
858-255-5243rchambers@illumina.comorMedia:Eric Endicott,
858-882-6822pr@illumina.com
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