Genetron Holdings Limited (("Genetron Health" or the "Company", NASDAQ:GTH), a leading precision oncology platform company in China that specializes in molecular profiling tests, early cancer screening products and companion diagnostics development, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Jiangsu Fosun Pharmaceutical Sales Co., Ltd ("Jiangsu Fosun Pharma"), a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. ("Fosun Pharma", Stock code: 600196.SH, 02196.HK), to commercialize Seq-MRD®, a molecular diagnostic assay for the detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients suffering from select hematologic cancers. The partnership marks the launch of Genetron Health's first product for hematologic cancer and MRD detection in the China market.
Under the agreement, Genetron Health and Jiangsu Fosun Pharma will work exclusively together to co-market and co-promote Seq-MRD® in hematologic-focused hospitals and clinics across designated territories in China. Both parties intend to serve patients afflicted by lymphoid malignancies, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), multiple myeloma (MM), and chronic lymphoid leukemia (CLL).
In China, Jiangsu Fosun Pharma employs a robust sales force of roughly 1,500 representatives to promote and sell innovative drugs that target hematologic and lymphoid malignancies, solid tumors, and others. In order to promote Seq-MRD®'s clinical applications, Jiangsu Fosun Pharma will bring a sizeable, experienced, hematologic cancer focused sales force and valuable relationships with clinics, hospitals and distributors to this collaboration. Genetron Health will provide technical and commercial support to the partnership; this will include promoting scientific studies, marketing, and conducting product-related training.
The Seq-MRD® assay has been optimized with Genetron's One-step Seq technology, which enables the DNA library construction process for gene sequencing to finish with a single PCR reaction and minimizes the risks of contamination and false positive results. This simple operational feature, together with Genetron's fully automated bioinformatics solutions, enables Seq-MRD® to achieve high throughput and accuracy, good uniformity, high cost-efficiency, and fast turnaround times, when compared with traditional detection methods. To date, Seq-MRD® has been tested with thousands of samples of ALL, MM, and CLL in China.
"We are glad to partner with a company as innovative as Genetron Health is. Seq-MRD® offers significant advantages over conventional detection methods and has significant market potential in China. Our partnership's goal is to increase Seq-MRD®'s market penetration and turn it into a standardized NGS-based MRD test," said Wu Yifang, Chairman and CEO of Fosun Pharma. "We believe that our capabilities and network can maximize the product's commercialization potential. More importantly, we are excited about the prospects of better MRD testing, and the significant clinical value that it could offer to cancer survivors."
"We are thrilled to enter into this exclusive strategic partnership with Fosun Pharma, a leading global pharmaceutical company, to market our innovative Seq-MRD® assay product and further its clinical applications in China. This product has been optimized with our One-step Seq technology, and has received positive feedback from our biopharma partners during clinical trials," said Sizhen Wang, Co-founder and CEO of Genetron Health. "MRD is an emerging field that is being closely watched by global scientific research institutes, clinicians, and diagnostic companies. In addition to hematologic cancer, Genetron is committed to developing MRD for solid tumor. We look forward to sharing more updates in the near future."
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- Global Health Data Exchange, http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool