Precision oncology company Guardant Health has collaborated with Spain-based Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) to offer first Guardant-based biopsy testing service in Spain.
Under the partnership, the in-house liquid biopsy testing service will be established at VHIO’s facility in Barcelona, Spain. The service will use Guardant Health’s advanced digital sequencing platform.
Expected to become operational in 2021, the testing service will be provided for clinical research and clinical care. It will be initially offered to private patients and expanded to the public healthcare system over time.
Guardant Health CEO Helmy Eltoukhy said: “We are pleased to announce this partnership with VHIO which will bring liquid biopsy comprehensive genomic testing to more cancer patients in Spain and beyond.
“Our vision is that all cancer patients globally have access to state-of-the-art diagnostics to enable improved outcomes through earlier, faster, and more accurate diagnosis, therapy selection, and monitoring, and this partnership is an important step toward realizing that vision.”
Guardant Health stated that its liquid biopsy tests have been broadly used in clinical trials with more than 200 peer-reviewed publications showing its benefits to patients.
According to the company, oncologists from around the world use Guardant360 tests to guide treatment decisions across solid tumour cancers.
The pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers use the firm’s tests in clinical trials to boost precision medicine drug development.
Guardant Health has secured CE mark approval and clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Guardant360 CDx assay for tumor mutation profiling in patients with any solid malignant neoplasm.
The assay is also designed as a companion diagnostic to detect non-small cell lung cancer patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) alterations who may benefit from treatment with Tagrisso (osimertinib).
