Harbinger Health has secured substantial funding through a series B financing round, raising a total of $140 million to advance its pioneering liquid biopsy tests and accompanying software program aimed at detecting the earliest signs of cancer. Flagship Pioneering, the company that unveiled Harbinger in 2021, led the financing round, with additional support from new investors including Pictet, Partners Investment, and M&G Investments’ Catalyst fund, among others. Since its inception, Harbinger has raised nearly $200 million, with an initial commitment of $50 million from Flagship.
The series B funding will drive the development of Harbinger’s testing model and machine learning software. It will also support an ongoing study involving 10,000 participants, validating the cancer screening platform. Harbinger intends to initiate further studies, particularly focusing on high-risk populations, while expanding its data science and commercial teams.
In June, the company presented results of another study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, demonstrating that its machine learning algorithm achieved 82% sensitivity and 95% specificity in cancer detection, with increased sensitivity as cancer progressed. These efforts are geared towards Harbinger’s goal of launching its first product in 2025. This initial product will consist of a laboratory-developed blood test analyzed by the HarbingerHx software, designed to identify biological abnormalities indicative of early-stage cancer development.
In the future, the data and analyses generated by HarbingerHx and the company’s DNA library archiving technology from each test will support the development of cost-effective, multi-cancer blood tests. These tests will include specific options for various disease types and population groups.
“At Harbinger, our goal is to lead the way to a future where cancer screening is routine, affordable and accessible for everyone. We have a unique opportunity to make cancer screening tools work better and work for more people through our biological and technical solutions. We are achieving this by combining machine learning with insights into the biology of cancer’s origins and individual risk in order to provide actionable information to providers, enabling them to guide improved clinical decision making for their patients. This is where I see our greatest potential to reduce cancer mortality rates in our lifetimes.”
– Stephen Hahn, M.D., Harbinger’s CEO and the former commissioner of the FDA
