Mirvie, a pioneer in predicting unexpected pregnancy complications, today announced a $4.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the company’s efforts to predict unexpected pregnancy complications before they happen by revealing the underlying biology of each pregnancy for women on a global scale. Specifically, the funding will help launch study sites in Cameroon, Ghana, and Zambia to understand preeclampsia among pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) using the Mirvie RNA platform via a simple blood test from the mom.
Preeclampsia disproportionately impacts mothers and infants in developing countries, affecting 10 million women globally, and is a leading cause of maternal death in this population. Mirvie is working to fill this need: a study published in Nature found Mirvie’s RNA platform detects 75% of those who will develop preeclampsia.
“We’re thrilled to have the support of the Gates foundation as Mirvie works to predict and prevent pregnancy complications, allowing providers and patients to intervene before they become a crisis, and to work with leading maternal-fetal health researchers, Drs. Alan Tita and Methodius Tuuli, to bring pregnancy health to the 21st century,” shares Maneesh Jain, cofounder and CEO of Mirvie.
The last year has brought meaningful forward progress for Mirvie, including receiving FDA Breakthrough Device Designation, one of only four recipients ever in the obstetrics space. “We’re looking forward to building on the company’s strong momentum with this latest milestone,” adds Jain.
Sparked by the personal experience of one of the founders whose daughter was born prematurely, the idea for Mirvie turned into a proprietary Mirvie RNA platform combining revolutionary analysis of tens of thousands of RNA messages from the baby, the placenta and the mom, with machine learning, and opening a new window into pregnancy health for expecting parents to act and their doctors to intervene before unexpected complications become a crisis.
“Additionally, we are conducting ongoing clinical research to validate existing peer-reviewed evidence, to enhance the Mirvie RNA platform performance, and to improve the understanding of other pregnancy complications,” explains Jain.
“Diversity and inclusion in maternal health research, especially at a global scale, is critical if we want to create meaningful progress and interventions to curb maternal mortality,” shares Dr. Alan Tita, Director of the Mary Heersink Institute of Global Health co-lead researcher for the study.
Founded in 2018, Mirvie has raised more than $90 million in early-stage financing from top-tier investors, including Decheng Capital, Foresite Capital, General Catalyst, GV, Khosla Ventures, and Mayfield. Mirvie is based in South San Francisco, California.
The research funded with this grant builds upon Mirvie’s commitment to inclusive, evidence-based pregnancy health research through the Mirvie Research Collaborative. The Mirvie Research Collaborative is currently enrolling at least 10,000 pregnant individuals from highly diverse populations across the United States to create the largest and richest biobank of pregnancy transcriptomes ever.
“I hope that this research will underscore how state-of-the-art innovation in pregnancy health can contribute to the global good and unleash personalized medicine for maternal health in a way we have yet to see,” concluded Dr. Methodius Tuuli, Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital and co-lead researcher for the study.
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