SA国际传媒

, the startup behind an early cancer-detecting blood test for dogs, raised $62 million in its Series B funding round, company leaders told SA国际传媒 News this week.

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The San Diego-based startup plans to use its cash influx to get its technology known as OncoK9, which it says can detect 30 cancers from a blood draw, in front of more veterinarians and become a standard test in pet clinics across the country. Cancer is the leading cause of death in pets once they pass middle age, and , according to the Veterinary Cancer Society.

鈥淚n many ways, the holy grail for cancer is early detection,鈥� , COO of PetDx, told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淪o much of the progress we’ve made on the human side is really primarily because we’re so much better at detecting things early 鈥� and animals have not had that fortune of getting those innovations made available to them鈥攗ntil now.鈥�

The financing round was led by with participation by , , , , , and .

The recent round brings the startup鈥檚 total venture financing to $72 million. PetDx鈥檚 $10 million Series A round, which wrapped up in August 2020, was led by s with participation from and another undisclosed leading pet health care company. In May, to offer the screenings in its on-site pet clinics.

鈥淏y adding OncoK9 to our Petco veterinarians’ toolbox, we’ll help more pets and pet parents move quicker from suspicion to diagnosis and treatment, and hopefully from patient to survivor,” Petco CEO said in a statement earlier this year.

But Marsal says the startup still has plenty of capacity to add more clinics to its roster.

PetDx has grown rapidly over the past year, starting with eight employees at the start of 2021 and wrapping up the year with about 90. If not for a pandemic that made many of the company鈥檚 employees remote workers, they would have already outgrown its current headquarters building, he said.

The company鈥檚 goal in the next two years is that every clinic in America鈥攁nd later outside of the U.S.鈥攚ould have access to the test. Then it鈥檚 a matter of what portion of the country鈥檚 approximately 26,000 veterinary clinics that treat companion pets will adopt it.

鈥淲hether that’s 5,000, 10,000 or all 26,000 [clinics], we’ll see,鈥� Marsal said. 鈥淚t would be great if they all embrace it as quickly as others have so far. It鈥檚 really been overwhelming how excited the veterinary community is to have this innovation. We almost can’t keep up with onboarding the clinics because they’re coming to us so fast.鈥�

While PetDx鈥檚 blood cancer screening is geared toward canines, Marsal said the company could provide a similar service for cats within the next 12 or 24 months and expand to other companion animal species in the future.

That鈥檚 good news for pet owners and vets who may be trying to diagnose an animal that is , an instinct left over from their ancestors in the wild that knew weakness might make them seem like easy prey to predators.

And, as a cherry on top, the expanded rollout also has potential benefits well beyond the animal world, Marsal said.

鈥淲e also have a big opportunity to contribute back to human science because of the similarities of the human genome and the canine genome,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o, while we’re not necessarily going to develop those therapeutics, we’re already picking out partnerships with both human pharma and animal health pharma companies that want to access all the data we’re generating, and so this is going to benefit humans too.鈥�

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