SINGAPORE, Nov. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Guardant Health AMEA today announces the launch of its Asia, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Singapore with the goal of addressing the unmet medical need in cancer management by leveraging comprehensive genomic profiling liquid biopsy tests and big data analytics. Its flagship product, Guardant360, first introduced in 2014, has been ordered more than 70,000 times to help inform which therapy may be effective for advanced stage cancer patients with solid tumours. It has been reviewed by more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, which address its analytical validity, clinical validity, and clinical utility in multiple tumour types, and used by 40+ biopharma companies.
"Today, about half -- or nine million -- of the world's incidences of cancer and more than half of cancer mortality occur in Asia, and this looks to increase dramatically by 2040[1]. This presents not only a vast market opportunity but an urgent unmet medical need that needs to be addressed. Specifically we believe our breakthrough liquid biopsy tests, such as Guardant360, will be able to bring about better treatment selection for advanced lung, breast, gastric and colorectal cancers, which have particularly high prevalence rates in Asia," said Simranjit Singh, CEO, Guardant Health AMEA.
Guardant Health AMEA expands commercial footprint in AMEA; and is conducting clinical studies in Asian patient population
Guardant Health AMEA is currently offering Guardant360 to clinical customers for assisting with treatment selection in advanced cancers and has already established distributorships in key markets including Southeast Asia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, New Zealand, Middle East and Israel. The Guardant360 assay received breakthrough device designation from the US FDA earlier this year. FDA approval, if and when obtained, is expected to further help accelerate commercial adoption of the test internationally. The company has also established an office in Japan and its growing team comprises expertise in medical affairs, regulatory affairs, business development, bioinformatics, lab operations and sales.
Clinical studies are also underway to generate relevant data specific to Asian patient population. The company is collaborating with the National Cancer East Network (NCCE) SCRUM Japan in two nationwide genomic screening networks, GI-SCREEN and LC-SCRUM Japan, using Guardant360 to match patients to approved or experimental therapies in clinical trials. Guardant Health AMEA has also recently published the first cohort study data on Chinese advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients that received comprehensive liquid biopsy test[2].
"Guardant Health AMEA's mission is to conquer cancer with data through much earlier detection of the disease to dramatically improve patient outcomes and ultimately lower the cost burden of the disease to the overall health system," Mr Singh said.
Guardant Health AMEA will be presenting two posters at ESMO Asia that show evidence that supports the use of non-invasive liquid biopsy for identifying clinically relevant and actionable targets for therapy selection in advanced solid tumour Asian patients. The poster presentation at ESMO Asia details are as follows:
Title: Circulating cell-free DNA molecular profiling among East Asian patients reveals activating MET alterations are common in diverse advanced cancer types
Date: 24 November 2018
Location: Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, Exhibition Area
Poster No.: 378P
Title: Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) landscape in ERBB2 (HER2) amplified Asian cancer patient population
Date: 24 November 2018
Location: Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, Exhibition Area
Poster No.: 373P
[1] Cancer Tomorrow, International Agency for Research on Cancer
[2] Long HH et al. 2018 Clinical Lung Cancer
About Guardant Health AMEA
Guardant Health AMEA is a precision oncology company dedicated to helping conquer cancer through our proprietary blood tests, vast data sets, and advanced analytics. This was formed as a joint venture between Guardant Health and Softbank.
We believe the key to conquering cancer is unprecedented access to its molecular information throughout all stages of the disease. We are developing tools that can enable such access through tests that require only a blood sample. For more information, please visit us here. Guardant Health and Guardant360 are registered trademarks of Guardant Health, Inc.