Pattern Bioscience Secures $28.7 Million in Series C Financing

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pattern Bioscience, Inc., an innovator in rapid diagnosis and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) for bacterial infections, today announced the completion of a $28.7 million Series C financing. The latest funding round was led by Illumina Ventures and Omnimed Capital and includes participation from the Antimicrobial Resistance Action Fund and Daleshaw Ltd. This new round brings the company’s total funding raised to date to $68 million.

Pattern is pioneering the use of single-cell microbiology to rapidly diagnose drug-resistant bacterial infections and identify effective treatments. The company will use the new funds to complete the development of its groundbreaking rapid phenotypic test platform for infectious diseases, perform clinical validation studies, and submit the platform and the company’s initial pneumonia test for regulatory review with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Pattern’s novel technology, based on single-cell analysis of microorganisms combined with machine learning, can generate clinically actionable data identifying the causal pathogen and profiling its antibiotic susceptibility in hours — rather than the days required for culture-based tests, the current standard. The company’s first test, which was granted Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA in December 2021, will be for hospitalized patients with pneumonia. In the future, Pattern’s technology will support a full menu of other tests.

“We are grateful for the support from our investors as we strive to revolutionize bacterial testing with our single-cell microbiology platform,” said Nick Arab, co-founder and CEO of Pattern Bioscience. “We believe our technology will significantly impact patient outcomes and help tackle the growing challenge of antibiotic resistance.”

Every year, approximately 1.3 million lives¹ and billions of healthcare dollars are lost to drug-resistant bacterial infections, and faster diagnostic tools are urgently needed to help mitigate this crisis by enabling targeted antibiotic treatment. Using standard-of-care culture-based tests, it can take up to four days to secure a definitive diagnosis for a critically ill patient. Studies have shown that such patients with drug-resistant infections are four to seven times more likely to die if there’s even a 24-hour delay in effective antibiotic treatment.

“Pattern Bioscience’s system will rapidly identify the pathogen causing an infection and provide clear guidance about the best antibiotic to treat the patient,” said Nick Naclerio, founding partner of Illumina Ventures. “I am enthusiastic about the impact they will have on patient outcomes and the global antibiotic resistance threat.”

About Pattern

Pattern Bioscience aims to save lives by transforming how bacterial infections are diagnosed and to improve global health by reducing the burden of antibiotic resistance. Its single-cell microbiology technology is the first and only culture-free, rapid phenotypic testing platform to deliver clinically actionable results in a timeframe that will enable healthcare teams to get appropriate, life-saving treatments to patients fast enough to make a real difference in outcomes. The company’s first tests will be for critically ill patients with pneumonia and bacteremia, identifying both the causal pathogen and its antibiotic susceptibility profile in hours, compared with the days required for traditional culture testing. Pattern Bioscience is a privately held company based in Austin, Texas, led by veterans of the diagnostic industry with deep experience bringing new diagnostic technology to market. For more information, please visit pattern.bio.

Research reported in this press release is supported by CARB-X. CARB-X’s funding for this project is provided in part with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; under agreement number: 75A50122C00028, and by an award from Wellcome (WT224842). The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of CARB-X or any of its funders.

¹Murray C, et al. “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis.” The Lancet, 399 (10325):629-655. February 12, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02724-0

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