Greater availability of African genomic data could lead to medical breakthroughs for the continent’s 1.2 billion people.
That’s the driving proposition of 54gene — a U.S. and Nigeria based startup — that collects African genetic code for use in health research and drug development.
The company has closed a $15 million Series A round, in part, to address a deficiency in these processes.
“As of the time we launched, less then 3% of all genome wide association studies globally had been conducted in Africa. There was a lack of data coming from Africans…and the diaspora,” 54gene founder and CEO Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong said.
“We are trying to address the gap that currently exists in precision medicine for people of the African continent,” he told TechCrunch on a call from Lagos.
New York based Adjuvant Capital led the round 54gene will now deploy toward that goal. Founded in 2019 by Ene-Obong, the company is headquartered in Washington, DC with a biobank facility in Lagos that holds capacity for 60,000 samples. The startup has an engineering team and a proprietary platform to catalog and analyze the genetic data.
“When you are a service provider to big pharma you can’t really make such a request. But when you are a development partner you co-own a significant stake of what’s being developed and have more of a say,” said Ene-Obong.
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The startup is unable to disclose any current big pharma partners or which health issues in Africa it’s aiming genetic research toward tackling.
“I can say we will prioritize diseases that affect Africans disproportionately,” Ene-Obong said.
One obvious ailment in need of more effective prevention and treatment is malaria — with 92% of the world’s 219 million cases occurring in Africa, according to WHO data.
54gene has also turned its capabilities to COVID-19, which has spiked in Africa since mid-March. The company has re-positioned itself to do testing for the virus in Nigeria’s public health facilities and plans to offer coronavirus screening in its Lagos lab soon.
“We hope that when given approval, we can do more than 3000 tests a day,” said Ene-Obong.
Juliet Ekwebelam
