Meet PathGen! This Indonesian startup is making it accessible and affordable to diagnose cancer and other diseases. Now, they just raised an undisclosed funding round.

Investor check. East Ventures and Royal Group Indonesia joined in!

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🩺 Why it matters

Low-cost solutions are key in lower and middle-income countries. Here, access to testing is extremely low to begin with.

• In 2022, there were an estimated 20M new cancer cases and 9.7M deaths.
• About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, with 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women dying from the disease.

Easy and affordable access to testing allows patients to detect cancer early and promote better patient outcomes.

• Only around 18% of Indonesia’s healthcare facilities have access to molecular cancer testing
• Comprehensive cancer treatment is available in more than 90% of high-income countries but less than 15% of low-income countries.

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🧪 The Path(Gen) ahead

PathGen iscurrently developing easy-to-use low-cost PCR-based genetic testing kits for several cancers, like colorectal, lung, nasopharynx, and cervical cancers.

• They’ve partnered with BioFarma, an Indonesian state-owned pharmaceutical company to produce and distribute these.
• They’re also building solutions to identify treatment responses, the likely course of the disease for the patient, and one’s risk of disease when a family member is affected.

Apart from these, they’re also developing an AI-powered digital pathology platform for precise diagnoses, biomarker tracking, and resource sharing.

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💰 What’s with the $$$?

They’ll invest in R&D, advancing their tech, market expansion, operations, and more.