Precision Medicine Company adyn Raises $ 2.5 Million Seed Funding for Personalized Birth Control

Gives women personalized contraceptive recommendations to minimize side effects of medications, including blood clots and depression

SEATTLE – (COMMERCIAL THREAD) – adyn, a precision medicine company, today announced it has closed a $ 2.5 million funding round. The round was co-led by Lux Capital and M13 with participation from Civilization Ventures, Concrete Rose Capital, Y Combinator, Madrona Pioneer Fund, Ascend VC and angel investors including Anne Wojcicki from 23andMe, Nish Bhat from Color Genomics, Qasar Younis from Applied Intuition and Ashley Mayer from Glossier.

Side effects are the biggest reason women switch to another contraceptive method, with 52% of women trying four or more methods (and that doesn’t even count for multiple types of pills) before finding one that works for them. body. While some side effects, like weight gain and acne, are a nuisance, others, like blood clots and depression, can be life threatening. On average, women in the United States take birth control for 30 years. Today, the standard of care for prescribing hormonal contraceptives is trial and error, and the average time spent on contraceptive counseling is 12.9 minutes. adyn uses proprietary hormonal and genomic analyzes to turn this selection process into a science and take the guesswork out of it. Using adyn’s precision medicine approach, patients and physicians will be able to personalize contraceptive selection, minimizing side effects ranging from annoyances like acne to life-threatening conditions, including blood clots. blood and depression.

Adyn’s flagship product, the Birth Control Optimization Test, is the very first test that uses your biology to personalize your choice of birth control. The home kit collects samples for our lab-developed test that aims to quantify baseline hormone levels and assess the genetic risk for two of the most serious side effects: blood clots and depression. adyn then incorporates this into the medical history and side effect profiles of estrogen and progestins used in hormonal contraception. Adyn-trained birth control specialists share personalized recommendations and are available for ongoing care through adyn’s telemedicine platform.

Adyn’s founder, Dr Elizabeth Ruzzo, received her doctorate in genetics and genomics from Duke University and has spent over 10 years researching and identifying the genetic risk of complex diseases such as epilepsy and autism and has worked to help the field realize its vision of precision medicine. Throughout his academic career, Dr Ruzzo has encountered research gaps that have blocked genetic discovery in non-European populations and masked or ignored how biological sex differences contribute to disease and drug response. .

Dr Ruzzo said, “The pill has been on the market in the United States since the 1960s, and 64 million women of childbearing age in the United States are fed up with a birth control screening process that doesn’t it’s unscientific, unpredictable and unpleasant. As I was finishing my doctorate in human genomics, I changed my contraceptive prescription and was thrown into suicidal thoughts. Fortunately, I recognized that this was due to the change in medication. The gender gap in medical research and the racial gap in medical research have had profound and devastating impacts on available diagnostics, treatment and care, and adyn seeks to make scientific discovery more inclusive. In order to eliminate trial and error in birth control selection, access to your own biological data is essential.

Deena Shakir, Partner of Lux Capital, said: “At the forefront of precision medicine, adyn is finally giving women better options for family planning and more control over their health. Dr Ruzzo and his team have achieved a breakthrough in both technology and the business model, which together will fundamentally transform the quality and accuracy of diagnostics and the delivery of healthcare. We are very excited to join forces with an incredible Founder, Team and Co-Investors in pursuit of a future where healthcare solutions are as unique as each individual they serve.

M13 partner Christine Choi said: “adyn opens up access to health through personalized scientific information on genetics and hormone levels that are medically exploitable. Dr. Ruzzo’s expertise in precision medicine will introduce a new standard of care for birth control and fill gaps caused by historical inequity in medical research. We are delighted to support cutting edge technology personalized for optimized individual health. “

Adyn’s waitlist is now open for her birth control optimization test to be shipped this year. To learn more about the product and to join our waitlist rewards program, please visit https://www.adyn.com.

About adyn

adyn is a precision medicine company that makes scientific discovery more inclusive so that everyone can live their healthiest lives. Founded in 2019, adyn provides medically actionable scientific information and empowers individuals to proactively optimize their health, from birth control to fertility and beyond. For more information, follow adyn on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Please visit https://www.adyn.com.

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