Friday, March 7, 2008

Allegro Diagnostics tests out $4M first VC round

Allegro Diagnostics, a diagnostics startup with ties to Boston University, has reeled in its first round of venture capital financing to develop its molecular tests, officials said.

Allegro officials reported that the company has closed a $4 million Series A round of venture capital. The VC round was led by Kodiak Venture Partners of Waltham, with investments from Catalyst Health Ventures in Newton and BU.

In May 2007, Mass High Tech reported the launch of Allegro Diagnostics, then called ExProDx, and how its founders and BU physicians Jerome Brody and Avrum Spirum had found genetic markers for early diagnosis of lung cancer -- the deadliest form of cancer among Americans. At the time, Brody and Spirum were thrilled about a $175,000 grant they received from BU.

Brody, who the former head of the pulmonary center at BU School of Medicine, has joined Allegro full-time as chief scientific officer.

Andrey Zarur, a general partner at Kodiak, has become chairman of the startup.

At the helm of Allegro is CEO Dan Rippy, a former executive of New Jersey-based medical products giant Johnson & Johnson and of pharma giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co.