Asabys invests in a platform to detect complications in pregnancy

BarcelonaAsabys has co-led a €15 million investment round for iPremom, a molecular diagnostics company dedicated to the early prediction of pregnancy complications. The round was led by Amadeus Capital Partners and also included Apax Ventures.

This investment aims to support the clinical validation and commercial deployment of iPremom's MaiRa platform, which analyzes early pregnancy complication signals during the first trimester with a simple blood test. The MaiRa platform is the result of over a decade of research by its co-founders, Professor Carlos Simón and Dr. Tamara Garrido. Research shows that first-trimester pregnancy complications can be detected in maternal blood from the first trimester, long before symptoms appear.

In preeclampsia, for example, this is related to decidualization resistance, a process in which the uterine lining does not develop as it should. Consequently, a detectable signal of circulating free RNA (cfRNA) is generated in maternal blood as early as between weeks 9 and 14 of gestation. From a single blood sample, healthcare professionals can use MaiRa to analyze circulating free RNA (cfRNA) and apply predictive models that allow for the assessment of the risk of various pregnancy complications. The platform has been developed using real patient data from over 26,000 samples, linked to 10,000 pregnancies that were part of the PREMOM study, one of the largest prospective clinical trials conducted in Spain. This dataset also allows for the identification of molecular signals associated with a broader set of complications, which will be progressively incorporated into the platform over time.

"Underdiagnosed" problems

Under the leadership of Guillermo Ferrando Huertas, CEO of the Paterna-based company in Valencia, iPremom is focused on advancing clinical validation and expanding access to MaiRa. The platform is already available in Spain through iPremom's laboratory. For Professor Carlos Simón, co-founder and president of iPremom, "pregnancy complications have been underdiagnosed and undertreated for generations because we were looking in the wrong place and at the wrong time." He highlights that the company's ambition "is not only to develop a better test for preeclampsia, but to offer every pregnant woman a comprehensive and early molecular insight into her pregnancy." In this regard, he said that the financing raised "represents a fundamental step towards turning our vision into a clinical reality."