WALTHAM, MA – Sanguine Biosciences (“Sanguine”), a leader in connecting patients with biopharmaceutical companies to accelerate precision medicine R&D and Cell & Gene Therapy, announced today a new investment from BroadOak Capital Partners, LLC (“BroadOak”), a leading direct investment and advisory firm focused on life science research tools, pharmaceutical services and diagnostics. The partnership with BroadOak enables Sanguine to expand its laboratory operations, leukapheresis offerings, and patient donor network.
This year, Sanguine was ranked #30 Best Small Workplaces and #7 Best Workplaces Biopharma small and medium companies by Fortune. Significant growth has prompted Sanguine to open a laboratory in San Diego. The lab provides pre-analytical specimen processing services to its biopharmaceutical customers. In October of 2022, Sanguine launched a new apheresis product family, providing researchers with large volume immune and hematopoietic stem cells from single donors with confirmed disease. The offering solves a major unmet need in life science R&D, particularly in the high-growth and high-impact cell & gene therapy arena.
“Covid-19’s push towards in-home, decentralized and hybrid clinical trials validated our patient-centric model of biospecimen collection, and further cemented our leadership in specimen procurement,” explained Brian Neman, Co-Founder and CEO of Sanguine. “We recognized that our customers could further benefit if we applied our patients-first attitude towards preanalytical sample processing in our own laboratory, as well as offering Leukopaks from our extensive donor network. This investment bolsters our laboratory and apheresis initiatives so we can make an immediate, material, and positive impact for patients and our clients in cell and gene therapy,” he said. Sanguine delivered on both laboratory services and leukapheresis product offerings late in 2022.
Since 2019, Sanguine has organically increased headcount more than four-fold, and revenue by three-fold, while maintaining profitability. Gerald Lee, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Sanguine noted, “Opening the lab and starting the leukapheresis offerings essentially from scratch, meant we needed to add additional capital, as well as talent and training to our already growing team. Our current menu of services and selective partnerships with apheresis clinics are only the beginning. The infusion of funds, strategic insights, and confirmation of our business model from BroadOak couldn’t have come at a better time.”
“Like Sanguine, we recognized the value of putting patients front-and-center in the therapeutic development conversation,” said BroadOak Vice President Aaron Fisher. “Sanguine’s differentiated model of obtaining biospecimens characterized with complete data directly from patients represents where the market is heading. Furthermore, adding lab capabilities and Leukopaks to their offering opens Sanguine’s addressable market, especially to cell & gene therapy developers,” added Fisher, who recently joined the Sanguine Board of Directors.
In translating bench discoveries into bedside treatments for patients, biopharmaceutical researchers utilize human biospecimens for biomarker development that can lead to innovative clinical applications, but the complexity of biologic- and cell-based therapies complicates the procurement and processing of relevant patient samples for research use. Sanguine Biosciences streamlines this process and offers researchers access to a diverse, nationwide network of over 60,000 patient donors through partnerships with patient advocacy groups and a robust recruitment apparatus. Adding laboratory capabilities and leukapheresis products equips researchers with critical tools that shorten therapy development timelines and reduce costs.
About Sanguine Biosciences
Sanguine Biosciences is accelerating personalized medicine research by empowering patients with their healthcare data and facilitating participation in biomedical research.
Bridging the gap between patients and researchers means securely and efficiently collecting, processing, and delivering patient biospecimens and relevant health data to the scientists working to improve therapy. Sanguine has supported translational and clinical research at 20 of the top 40 global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, shortening timelines and validating early-stage results to increase confidence and refine biomarkers in human trials. For the past three years, Sanguine received the prestigious designation as a “Great Places to Work” company. In 2022, Sanguine was designated #2038 on the Inc. 5000 America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies list. Popular media outlets featuring Sanguine include the Fox News Channel, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Inc., and many others.
About BroadOak Capital Partners
BroadOak Capital Partners is a life sciences focused, boutique financial institution that provides direct investment through BroadOak Asset Management, and investment banking services through BroadOak Partners, to companies in the life sciences tools, diagnostics, and biopharma services sectors. BroadOak has made investments in more than 60 companies and advised on over 50 successful M&A transactions. For more information, visit broadoak.com.
Contact Information:
Sanguine Biosciences
Charlene Christman, VP Marketing
Phone 650.387.4171
cchristman@sanguinebio.com