NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – BHC Center of Financial and Investment Business today announced it has invested in 20/20 GeneSystems to help bring the company's diagnostic test for lung cancer to China.
BHC, an Atlanta-based affiliate of Bao Hao Investment Management of Shanghai, said that the equity investment is the first of what it expects to be several in 20/20 GeneSystems. BHC did not disclose the amount of the investment.
20/20 GeneSystems' test, called PAULA's test — short for Protein Assay Using Lung Cancer Analytes — measures a panel of biomarkers that result from the early presence of a tumor and is marketed in the US by the Genesys BioLabs business unit of 20/20 GeneSystems.
BHC and 20/20 GeneSystems noted that China has a particularly high rate of smokers, as more than half of all men in the country smoke, according to the World Health Organization. That along with air pollution in urban areas has resulted in a high incidence of lung cancer in the country.