NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Precipio said today that India's Core Diagnostics will now offer liquid biopsy testing using Precipio's ICE COLD-PCR technology to major hospital networks throughout India and the surrounding region.
Financial terms of the laboratory services agreement were not disclosed.
Precipio promotes ICP, which it exclusively licensed from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, as offering similar sensitivity to droplet-based digital PCR platforms using less DNA and for less cost. This makes the platform a good fit for the Indian market, which is "both clinically advanced and fiscally responsible, particularly when it comes to healthcare expenditures," Precipio president and CEO Ilan Danieli said in a statement.
Core diagnostics also markets at least one other liquid biopsy assay — CellMax Life's LBx Liquid Biopsy, a non-invasive circulating tumor DNA test that analyzes 73 genes.
Other liquid biopsy tests available in the Indian market include the GeneStrat and VeriStrat tests — which are performed centrally by Biodesix in Boulder, Colorado, but are marketed in India by Positive Bioscience — and MedGenome's sequencing-based OncoTrack, which was developed and validated in India.
Zoya Brar, founder and CEO of Core Diagnostics, said that the agreement with Precipio makes it the first major lab to launch ICP-based liquid biopsy testing in India. Precipio's current offering is limited to kits for EGFR detection in lung cancer, but the company said it plans to launch ICP assays for colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma within the year.
Brar also noted that Core plans to expand its menu "in the coming months."