[Biospace – October 29, 2020] Epic Sciences, Inc. and Predicine, Inc. today announced they have entered into a global strategic partnership to offer biopharmaceutical companies access to both Predicine’s ctDNA-based testing and Epic’s CTC-based testing. Predicine’s lead offering is PredicineATLAS™, the broadest CLIA-certified ctDNA-based assay that analyzes 600 cancer-related genes, using next generation sequencing. Epic’s CTC-based platform offers testing of AR-V7, AR-N term, PSMA, ER, PR and other phenotypic tests. The combination of both approaches allows pharmaceutical partners engaged in clinical trials to measure both genotypic and phenotypic markers from a single blood draw.
Predicine is a California-based molecular insights company that has developed an NGS liquid biopsy technology to measure ctDNA and ctRNA genomic alterations in blood or urine. Predicine has launched its CLIA-certified 600-gene PredicineATLAS™ liquid biopsy assay for detecting cancer variants including single-nucleotide variants, indels, copy number variants (gain and loss), DNA fusions, microsatellite instability (MSI) and tumor mutational burden (TMB). Partnering with leading biopharmaceutical companies, Predicine provides harmonized liquid biopsy solutions and CDx development to support global clinical trials in US, EU, APAC region including China.
“From a single blood draw, Epic and Predicine’s partnership can now access Comprehensive Cancer Profiling that identifies CTCs with unmatched sensitivity, provides in-depth characterization of individual CTCs using genomic, proteomic and morphological tools and delivers a comprehensive genomic profile of the patient’s ctDNA that includes all known biomarkers and mutations associated with current cancer therapies,” said Lloyd Sanders, President and Chief Executive Officer, Epic Sciences. “This molecular information is critical to understanding the current state of a patient’s disease and offers the ability to monitor the cancer status, mechanism of action, and their response to a specific therapy. The combination of CTCs and ctDNA is a comprehensive solution designed to meet the growing needs of our pharmaceutical partners as they seek to develop life-changing therapies.”
“We are excited to partner with Epic Sciences by offering the capabilities of Predicine’s proprietary liquid biopsy technology,” said Shidong Jia, Founder and CEO of Predicine. “Combining ctDNA and CTC from a single blood draw offers a complementary, multi-technology approach in comprehensive cancer profiling, monitoring therapy efficacy/disease burden and assessing minimal residual disease. We are very pleased to provide this unique liquid biopsy solution to our pharma partners in support of global clinical trials.”