Perspectum Completes $55M Series C to Improve Metabolic Disease Diagnosis

Perspectum Completes $55M Series C to Improve Metabolic Disease Diagnosis


Like many technology companies, such as Qventus or Oculus VR, Insight named itself after a Latin word. Its name means to see clearly through a cloud, which is what making a clinical diagnosis is like, said Rajarshi Banerjee, the company’s CEO, in a recent interview.

Founded in 2012, Perspectum makes medical imaging tools designed to improve the diagnosis of metabolic diseases and cancer. On Wednesday, the company announced the second close of its $55 million Series C funding round, snagging an additional $19 million investment led by Oppenheimer. The new financing brings Perspectum’s total funding to date to about $140 million.

The company’s mission has always been to use existing data and medical equipment to deliver a higher standard of diagnosis and monitoring, Banerjee declared. Its flagship product, called LiverMultiScanis a noninvasive MRI scan that assesses and monitors chronic liver disease.

“LiverMultiScan takes a normal MRI scanner, and instead of asking a human to interpret a scan, uses computers to read the scan quantitatively — like painting by numbers — and gives a report on how much fat, iron and disease activity the patient has in their liver,” Banerjee explained.

Using existing MRI scanners to deliver higher quality, quantitative reports may eliminate the need for doctors to perform liver biopsies, he said.

Perspectum’s research and development takes place in the United Kingdom, but its headquarters is in Dallas, as the company sells most of its devices in the U.S. Several major U.S. hospitals have adopted LiverMultiScan, including Cedars-Sinai, Massachusetts General Hospital and Lahey HealthBanerjee pointed out.

According to him, clinicians enjoy using LiverMultiScan because its quantitative metrics help them assess a patient’s current state of liver disease more quickly. They also say that the tool is also easy to explain to patients, and it means they have to do fewer liver biopsies, Banerjee declared.

The tool has broad Medicare coverage and commercial insurance coverage, including from Anthem and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.

But Perspectum is not the only medical technology company trying to improve the diagnosis of liver disease. One competitor is Echosensa company that makes non-invasive tests that measure the stiffness of the liver. Banerjee said that Echosens’ technology focuses mainly on detecting late-stage liver disease rather than early, and it does not work as well in patients with a larger body mass.

Liver function blood tests, such as the LabCorp’s Enhanced Liver Fibrosis testing, also exist, Banerjee pointed out. But he said he feels they are not good at detecting liver disease in its early, treatable stages.

As Perspectum continues to grow its business, the company plans to expand its product pipeline for multiorgan conditions and oncology as well as in chronic conditions. Perspectum has “a great way of looking at the body holistically in systemic diseases,” such as diabetes and long Covid-19, Banerjee declared.

Photo: Perspective



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