Date: 2016-01-10
Type of information: Establishment of a new subsidiary in the US
Compound: pan-cancer screening test by directly measuring circulating nucleic acids in blood
Company: Illumina (USA - CA) GRAIL (USA - CA)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Diagnostic
Type agreement: establishment of a new subsidiary in the US
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Details: * On January 10, 2016, Illumina 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 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.
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.
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