Canexia Health

Imagia Canexia Health (ICH) was a genomics-based cancer treatment testing company formed in February 2022 through the merger of two Canadian firms: Montréal-based Imagia Cybernetics and Vancouver's Canexia Health. The merger, described as a "merger of equals," included a C$20 million investment from BDC Capital's Women in Technology Venture Fund, Desjardins Capital, and PacBridge Capital. The stated goal was to make precision oncology more accessible by combining Imagia's AI expertise with Canexia's molecular biopsy solutions. Canexia Health, formerly Contextual Genomics, was founded in 2012 to develop genomic-based molecular assays for oncology. Imagia Cybernetics was co-founded in 2015 by Alexandre Le Bouthillier and Nicolas Chapados, with guidance from AI expert Yoshua Bengio, after Le Bouthillier’s father was diagnosed with cancer.

The company's business model focused on providing cost-effective, local testing solutions to oncologists, hospitals, and reference labs to reduce expenses and deliver faster results. By integrating AI-powered informatics for treatment selection and monitoring, ICH aimed to provide clinical decision support and enable healthcare systems to bring complex genomic testing in-house. This approach targeted the community cancer centers and local hospitals where the majority of treatments are administered but advanced genomic screening is less common. Revenue streams were anticipated from these integrated workflow solutions, services that support therapeutic delivery, and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. One of its key products was the circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay, "Follow It," a liquid biopsy test that analyzes plasma for cancer-associated mutations to guide treatment selection.

The core of the company's offering was the integration of Imagia's EVIDENS AI platform with Canexia's end-to-end testing solutions. Imagia’s platform utilized federated learning to analyze clinical and genomic data from multiple sources while preserving patient data privacy, as the data remained within the hospital's infrastructure. Canexia provided the clinically validated assays and informatics to test, validate, and deliver analysis directly to oncologists. This combined system was designed to match patients with targeted therapies, monitor for recurrence, and ultimately improve treatment outcomes by making data-driven precision medicine more broadly available. Following the merger, the company was led by Imagia's CEO, Geralyn Ochab. However, despite its promising start and significant funding, Imagia Canexia Health filed for bankruptcy in August 2023, approximately 18 months after its formation.

Keywords: precision oncology, genomics, liquid biopsy, cancer diagnostics, artificial intelligence in healthcare, ctDNA, molecular diagnostics, cancer treatment selection, patient monitoring, federated learning, real-world data, Imagia Cybernetics, Contextual Genomics, cancer biomarkers, clinical decision support, health data informatics, oncology testing, targeted therapy, molecular assays, genomic profiling, personalized medicine