Uppsala: New investors fund expansion of Cavidi

Fundraising

Cavidi AB has signed an agreement with a consortium of American and Swedish investors to provide over $1.0 million to fund its operating costs, and raise additional funding as necessary, the company announced. The capital will be used to promote the Uppsala University spin-out company’s HIV viral load assay, ExaVir Load, for monitoring AIDS patients in the developing world.

Viral load monitoring is essential for the proper management of HIV-infected patients being treated with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), helping doctors to use the drugs more effectively, extending a patient’s length and quality of life, limiting the development of viral resistance and minimising waste of medication.

Key members of the investment consortium include several American investors experienced in venture capital markets as well as senior Cavidi management.

“This is an important step forward for Cavidi,” said Martyn Eales, the company’s CEO. “It gives us additional resources to fully promote the new version of ExaVir Load.” The company is on the verge of finalising agreements with major international non-government organisations, as well as new distributors in Africa and Asia.

“The easy-to-use, affordable and accurate HIV viral load monitoring that ExaVir Load provides is especially needed in resource-limited environments,” said Eales. “It permits the optimal use of what is invariably a limited supply of ARVs.”

Cavidi’s mission is to make medical diagnostics more accessible in those parts of the world where resources and infrastructure are limited. Their products include ExaVir Load, which is used to quantify the amount of HIV in a patient's blood, and ExaVir Drug, which measures a patient’s resistance to ARVs.

Cavidi was founded by virologists at Uppsala University in Sweden in 1984.