CAVIDI secures €7.8 million in new investment

Cavidi, a Swedish diagnostics company supplying HIV monitoring tests in global markets, announced today it had closed on an underwritten equity injection of €3.30 million from existing and five new investors and by so doing secured debt financing in the amount of €4.50 million. New investors from the industrial sector bring strong segment experience to support the ongoing global scale up of Cavidi’s unique diagnostic technology.

Cavidi develops, manufactures and distributes viral load tests in the field of HIV. The HIV viral load test measures the amount of HIV virus in a patient’s blood and is the most important clinical tool to determine whether HIV treatment is having the desired effect. It is now recommended by WHO as the preferred method for monitoring patients on treatment. The viral load test helps to prevent treatment failure and avert a switch to more expensive and toxic second-line treatment regimens. In 2016, 19.5 million of the 37 million people living with HIV had access to treatment, which means that the world is on track to reach the global target of 30 million people on treatment by 2020. However, there is a big gap in viral load testing need and actual delivery. This gap is not only related to high cost to deliver the test but also the inability to adapt diagnostic tools and approaches to the settings where they are needed most. A massive scale up of viral load testing is now underway to be able to provide the 1-3 viral load tests per year and patient that will be needed for the 30 million people on treatment.

With their proprietary technology, Cavidi is well placed to attract a significant share of that underlying market. This round of financing is the penultimate round to enable Cavidi to move from their present manual, labour intensive testing method, to the automated Ziva™ system that is being prepared for delivery in 2018.

The new Ziva™ system developed by Cavidi combines HIV viral load and drug resistance testing on the same run and same sample, a market first. Ziva requires minimal hands-on time and offers an accessible and cost-effective way to manage HIV patient treatment outcomes with high sensitivity and precision. Covering all types and subtypes of HIV, with no clean room requirements, Ziva is an affordable, fully automated, load and walk away, bench top processing system. The novel technology uses the RT enzyme as a biomarker delivering low cost per test, while also optimizing lab personnel time and efficiency, saving both cost and resources in district hospital labs.

The latest funding will enable Cavidi to fulfil important milestones preparing for the launch of Ziva.

John Reisky de Dubnic, CEO of Cavidi comments: “We have a novel technology and a market in waiting for our products so the future is bright which has been recognised by our current and new investors enabling us to bring this very exciting HIV monitoring platform to fruition. Cavidi has the continued backing of the European Commission via the European Investment Bank (EIB) in its ambition to promote innovative European technology and the growth companies of the future and we thank them for the time and valuable input they have provided and continue to provide.”

About Cavidi

Cavidi is a Swedish diagnostics company that develops, manufactures and distributes products that enable efficient management of anti-HIV drugs so that people living with HIV can live a normal lifespan. Cavidi’s tests for viral load and drug resistance can help to reduce the spread of HIV and save lives while also reducing treatment cost in high disease burden countries.