CHICAGO — Delfi Diagnostics, a company seeking to develop liquid biopsy tests to help screen for lung cancer, published a scientific paper on Monday describing key aspects of the test and unveiled the design of a key clinical trial.
Delfi also announced that the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, the VC arm of the drug giant, has made an investment of an undisclosed amount in the company.
Unlike Grail, a unit of Illumina, or Exact Sciences, which seeks to develop a blood test that can be used to screen for multiple types of cancer, Delfi is focusing on a single disease — lung cancer — in which the utility of screening with existing technology is not in dispute. Using low-dose CT scans to detect lung cancer is considered an established technology for people at higher risk of lung cancer. However, far too few people get screened.
