Take advantage of the samples of uterine fluid that are extracted during gynecological check-ups to diagnose endometrial cancer using a test that is quick, easy and economical to perform. This is the proposal of MiMark, a company that emerged from the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute following a discovery by Eva Colás and Antonio Gil, two researchers from the center. “It is a less invasive diagnostic solution than a puncture and facilitates diagnosis in less developed countries,” adds Marina Rigau, the company’s executive director, who completed her doctorate at the Barcelona hospital.
MiMark was established as a company in January 2021, but it was based on seven years of research and still has a long way to go before it can go on the market, which they anticipate will be between the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026. Journey and investment. To date, the emerging company has raised 4.7 million euros in public financing, with the main injections being 1.5 million provided by the European consortium EIT Health and 2.5 million from the European Innovation Council Accelerator obtained in June of this year . Also in June, MiMark raised its first investment round, with an amount of 1.52 million euros. To date, Clave Capital, Nara Capital, Namarel Ventures, Wa4Steam, CDTI and Inveready have joined the company.
This money, plus other contributions already in negotiation, should help the company in the current validation phase of a prototype of what they hope will be their first product, which they have named WomEC. In 2024 the company’s efforts will be directed to the clinical validation of the solution, and in 2025 the co-founders plan to begin closing the first commercial relationships to launch their medical advance to the market. To successfully face all these phases, MiMark has the help of the Bcn Heatlh Booster business acceleration program and Eco-Disruptive, a program of Sanitas and Bupa.
The startup, which employs six people and is based in the Barcelona Science Park, owes its name to the play on the words mimar and mark, for marker. “We want to pamper women by providing new biomarkers for women’s health,” says Rigau. Endometrial cancer is the first gynecological cancer in developed countries, with more than 6,700 new cases per year in Spain. Nowadays, the diagnosis requires, in a high number of women, a biopsy guided by hysteroscopy, an invasive procedure that could be avoided with WomEC.
