Abstract
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In Januay, Guardant Health entered into separate agreements with Astra-Zeneca, Merck, and Pfizer to develop a 500-plus-gene liquid biopsy panel to meet the needs of pharmaceutical companies for broad, molecular testing on a platform that doesn’t require tissue samples.
At launch, expected mid-year, Guardant says the 500-plus-gene panel will be industry’s largest commercially available liquid biopsy panel. It will allow researchers to screen patients for multiple clinical trial options from a simple blood draw, while also allowing real-time monitoring of tumor response and the evolution of tumor resistance. It will also support analysis of tumor mutational burden, for use with immunotherapy trials.
“With Guardant360, we have pushed our digital sequencing platform to the biological limits of DNA sequencing sensitivity. In a number of cases, we are now confidently detecting a single molecule of mutant, circulating tumor DNA in a 10-mL tube of blood drawn from an advanced cancer patient,” said Helmy Eltoukhy, Guardant Health CEO and co-founder. “Now we are applying this same underlying technology to 10 times as many genomic targets, in an effort to speed drug development. The result for which we are aiming is that effective drugs will get to market faster and help patients sooner.”