Illumina Forms New Company to Enable Early Cancer Detection via Blood-Based Screening
January 10 2016 - 5:29PM
Business Wire
Significant Development in the War on
Cancer
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) today announced GRAIL, a new
company formed to enable cancer screening from a simple blood test.
Powered by Illumina sequencing technology, GRAIL will develop a
pan-cancer screening test by directly measuring circulating nucleic
acids in blood.
Detecting cancer at the earliest stages dramatically increases
long-term survival, hence the successful development of a
pan-cancer screening test for asymptomatic individuals would make
the first major dent in global cancer mortality.
GRAIL’s unique structure enables it to take on this grand
challenge. GRAIL has been formed as a separate company, majority
owned by Illumina. GRAIL is initially funded by over $100 million
in Series A financing from Illumina and ARCH Venture Partners, with
participating investments from Bezos Expeditions, Bill Gates and
Sutter Hill Ventures. GRAIL’s unique relationship with Illumina
provides the ability to economically sequence at the high depths
necessary to create a screening test with the required sensitivity
and a hoped for level of specificity never before achievable for
cancer screening.
“We hope today is a turning point in the war on cancer,” said
Jay Flatley, Illumina Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the
Board of GRAIL. “By enabling the early detection of cancer in
asymptomatic individuals through a simple blood screen, we aim to
massively decrease cancer mortality by detecting the disease at a
curable stage.”
“The holy grail in oncology has been the search for biomarkers
that could reliably signal the presence of cancer at an early
stage,” said Dr. Richard Klausner, formerly Illumina Chief Medical
Officer and NCI Director, and a Director of GRAIL. “Illumina’s
sequencing technology now allows the detection of circulating
nucleic acids originating in the cancer cells themselves, a
superior approach that provides a direct rather than surrogate
measurement.”
“GRAIL’s rigorous, science-based approach with leading medical
and policy advisors worldwide is unprecedented in the fight to
defeat cancer,” said Robert Nelsen, Managing Director and
Co-Founder of ARCH Venture Partners and a Director of GRAIL.
GRAIL has secured the counsel of a world-class set of industry
and cancer experts for the company’s advisory board, including Dr.
Richard Klausner; Dr. Jose Baselga, Physician In Chief at Memorial
Sloan Kettering and President of the American Association of Cancer
Research; Dr. Brian Druker, Director, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute;
Mostafa Ronaghi, Chief Technology Officer at Illumina; Don Berry,
Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center; Timothy Church, Professor
at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and Charles
Swanton, Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute. The company
will initially have a five-member Board of Directors, including Jay
Flatley, William Rastetter (Chairman of Illumina), Dr. Richard
Klausner, Robert Nelsen, and the CEO. The company is actively
recruiting a CEO.
About Illumina
Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power
of the genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as the
global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies,
serving customers in the research, clinical and applied markets.
Our products are used for applications in the life sciences,
oncology, reproductive health, agriculture and other emerging
segments. To learn more, visit www.illumina.com and
follow @illumina.
About GRAIL – Learn more at Grailbio.com.
Forward-Looking Statement for Illumina
This release contains forward looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties, such as Illumina’s expectations for the
performance and utility of products to be developed by GRAIL.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those in any forward-looking statements include
challenges inherent in developing, manufacturing, and launching new
products and services and the other factors detailed in our filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our
most recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, or in information
disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which
are released beforehand. We do not intend to update any
forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
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Illumina, Inc.Investors:Rebecca Chambers,
858-255-5243rchambers@illumina.comorMedia:Eric Endicott,
858-882-6822pr@illumina.com
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