RetiSpec secures $13.8 million Series A to detect Alzheimer’s early through retinal imaging

This article was originally written by Alex Riehl for BetaKit on July 26, 2024. Read the original article here.

American pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and medical device provider Topcon Healthcare join as strategic investors.

Toronto-based RetiSpec has closed $10 million USD ($13.8 million CAD) in Series A financing to commercialize its technology that looks to improve the early-detection if neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, through an eye test. 

The round was led by Toronto-based venture capital firm iGan Partners with participation from strategic investors that include American pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and New Jersey-based medical device provider Topcon Healthcare.

RetiSpec also announced it will take part in an upcoming study sponsored by the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation.

RetiSpec had announced its partnership with Topcon, and investment in the company, in April, but did not specify an amount. While RetiSpec’s offering is currently for research use only, the firms plan to commercialize and integrate it with Topcon Harmony, a cloud-based clinical data management platform. Topcon chief commercial officer Lance Patton is joining RetiSpec’s board of directors as a result of the partnership.

Returning investors also participated in the round, including Gentex Corporation, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s Diagnostics Accelerator, Verge HealthTech Fund, University of Minnesota’s Discovery Capital, Ontario Brain Institute, Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), and undisclosed private investors. 

“We are thrilled to welcome such strong new investors, alongside existing investors, such as Gentex, who have been key contributors throughout our journey,” RetiSpec CEO and co-founder Eliav Shaked said in a statement. “Together, this investment will allow us to accelerate the commercialization of our AI-driven eye test, which has the potential to transform patient outcomes and enable early, accurate, and equitable access to treatment.”

RetiSpec said the round brings its total funding to date to $17 million USD ($23.5 million CAD).

Founded in 2016, RetiSpec says its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered eye test aims to predict amyloid burden, a “core biomarker” of Alzheimer’s disease, at the point-of-care. RetiSpec says it is also looking to develop additional AI-driven diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases and to identify side effects of Alzheimer’s therapeutics.

In 2018, RetiSpec announced a collaboration and licensing agreement with the University of Minnesota that gave it access to an imaging system developed by researchers Robert Vince, Swati More, and James Beach. The system claims to scan a patient’s eye to detect small quantities of a protein called beta amyloid before it collects in large enough clusters to form plaques in the brain—a biological sign of Alzheimer’s disease progression.

Alongside its funding, RetiSpec also announced it will take part in an upcoming study sponsored by the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation. The study aims to investigate the relationship between novel markers of Alzheimer’s disease, including that measured by RetiSpec’s test, across a sample of 1,000 cognitively normal and impaired participants. RetiSpec said the research is expected to include an unprecedented number of participants from traditionally underrepresented populations in Alzheimer’s studies.