Steven Kafka, the former Foundation Medicine chief operating officer who landed at Third Rock Ventures after a globetrotting “gap year,” has a new gig: CEO of Thrive Earlier Detection, a liquid biopsy company looking to catch cancer earlier through a routine blood test.
The company comes to life with $110 million in series A financing and CancerSEEK, a liquid biopsy test licensed from Johns Hopkins University that measures DNA and proteins in the blood to screen for multiple cancers. Third Rock led the financing, with Section32, Casdin Capital, Biomatics Capital, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, Invus, Exact Sciences, Cowin Venture, Camden Partners, Gamma 3 and others pitching in.
“The context of launching Thrive is about being part of a shift in the oncology community toward earlier detection,” Kafka told FierceBiotech. “Most of the resources in our industry, on the drug discovery and development side or the diagnostics side, tend to focus on late-stage disease, where folks are already pretty sick, and their options are fairly limited.”
Click here to read more via fiercebiotech.