Pfizer's venture arm has placed its latest targeted therapeutics bet yet by leading a $15.5 million round for the development stage cancer and autoimmune diagnostics company Nodality. The money will support Nodality’s launch of its first test for acute myelogenous leukemia, one of the most common types of the bone marrow cancer in adults. It will also help advance Nodality's other R&D programs in other hematologic malignancies, autoimmune diseases, and solid tumors, the South San Francisco, California-based company says.

 

LabCorp, Kleiner Perkins, TPG Biotechnology and Maverick Capital also participated in the round.

 

Pfizer, like many Big Pharma players has a lot of love for targeted therapeutics and personalized medicine ventures, opportunities that have become increasingly attractive as the era of the blockbuster sunsets. The company's wildly successful cholesterol drug, Lipitor, goes off patent in 2012. In preparation, it is busy inking new deals in nearly every potentially lucrative new vein, from generics to orphan indications. Pfizer's injectable, Idamycin, treats treats acute myeloid leukemia.

 

David Parkinson, Nodality's president and CEO called the financing “important to achieving our short-term business objectives and positioning the organization for long-term success.” Parkinson is no stranger to oncology development efforts. He has served executive leadership stints in cancer R&D divisions of Biogen Idec, Amgen and Novartis.

 

Nodality, which has built its portfolio around technology from Stanford University, aims to “inform clinical decisions in newly diagnosed patients,” the company says, helping doctors decide “whether to treat a particular malignancy, and if treatment is indicated, to instruct on preferred treatments, as well as to provide a rational and sensitive way of monitoring patients after therapy."