SAN DIEGO and SINGAPORE, July 7,
2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Epic Sciences (Epic) announced today an
agreement with Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings
(LabCorp®) (NYSE: LH) to provide circulating tumor cell (CTC)
technology and support oncology clinical trials in Asia through Covance Drug Development
(Covance). Covance will process patient samples in Singapore, and then send samples to Epic's
clinical laboratory in San Diego,
which has recently been licensed under the Clinical Laboratory
Improvement Amendments (CLIA) of 1988, for downstream detection and
molecular characterization of CTCs. This agreement expands on a
previous contract announced last year between Epic and LabCorp for
European clinical trials.
"The expansion of the partnership with LabCorp will provide an
important access point for all oncology clinical trials conducted
in Asia and meet the global demand
for Epic's circulating tumor cell technology," said Murali Prahalad, Ph.D., president and CEO of
Epic Sciences. "For Epic's clinical trial partners and customers,
we provide significant, actionable information on patient matching,
treatment effectiveness and disease progression to streamline
clinical trials for new targeted cancer therapies and to develop
essential companion diagnostics."
"We are excited to expand access to Epic's circulating tumor
cell technology from Europe to
Asia," said Dr. Steven M. Anderson, Chief Scientific Officer of
Covance Drug Development. "Epic's technology, which can robustly
and reproducibly detect, quantitate and molecularly characterize
circulating tumor cells, is a significant tool available to support
oncology clinical trials."
Epic is developing new, high-definition diagnostic tests to
provide clinically relevant information about how a patient's
cancer changes over time, which will allow for improved therapy
selection and early drug resistance detection. From a simple blood
draw, Epic's no cell left behindTM technology
analyzes approximately six million cells across more than 90
parameters to capture and analyze all possible types of circulating
tumor cells. Unlike other blood-based biomarkers used in liquid
biopsies, CTCs hold both genetic and proteomic information and
encompass the profiles of both primary tumors and metastases.
Epic's technology can incorporate CTC enumeration, quantitative
protein biomarker analysis and single-cell genomic analysis by next
generation sequencing (NGS) or fluorescent in situ hybridization
(FISH) to give a comprehensive picture of a patient's
cancer.
LabCorp is the world's leading healthcare diagnostics company,
providing comprehensive clinical laboratory services through
LabCorp Diagnostics, and end-to-end drug development support
through Covance Drug Development. With combined revenue proforma
for the acquisition of Covance in excess of $8.5 billion in 2014 and more than 48,000
employees in over 60 countries, LabCorp offers innovative solutions
to healthcare stakeholders, including physicians, patients and
consumers, biopharmaceutical companies, government agencies,
managed care organizations, hospitals, and clinical labs.
About Epic Sciences
Epic Sciences, Inc. is developing novel diagnostics to
personalize and advance the treatment and management of cancer.
Epic's mission is to enable the rapid and non-invasive detection of
genetic and molecular changes in cancer throughout a patient's
journey. The company was founded on a powerful platform to identify
and characterize rare cells, including circulating tumor cells
(CTCs). Epic's no cell left
behindTM technology helps match patients to
targeted therapies and monitor for drug resistance, so that the
best treatment path can be chosen at every clinical decision
point. Today, we partner with leading pharmaceutical
companies and major cancer centers around the world. Epic's goal is
to commercialize our technology to increase the success rate of
cancer drugs in clinical trials and improve patient outcomes by
providing physicians real-time information to guide treatment
choices.
For more information, please visit http://www.epicsciences.com
or follow on Twitter @epicsciences. To learn more about how
Epic can advance oncology clinical trials, please email
cdx@epicsciences.com.
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SOURCE Epic Sciences