Biolidics ties up with China's LC-Bio to develop cancer-diagnostic solutions

SINGAPORE-BASED cancer-diagnostics company Biolidics said on Wednesday that it has entered a collaboration agreement with Hangzhou-based LC-Bio to develop cancer-diagnostic solutions.

Under the five-year agreement, Biolidics will be LC-Bio's exclusive partner in China for the development of cancer-diagnostics solutions at LC-Bio's medical laboratory in Hangzhou. Biolidic's proprietary circulating-tumour-cell technology, which separates cancer cells from blood samples, will be used in this collaboration.

Biolidics had announced in February that it was aiming to obtain clinical validation of its cancer diagnostic solution in the second half of 2020. Biolidics will provide all necessary materials and relevant consumables required by the project; LC-Bio will provide the qualified medical laboratories and space required.

Both have agreed to provide any other additional manpower and necessary support for the development and clinical application of the cancer-diagnostic solution.

Once the solution passes the relevant clinical validation test, Biolidics will be responsible for the market promotion and applications, while LC-Bio will oversee the issuance of the test-result reports in its name. 

Biolidics will make payment for these reports. It had previously announced that it plans to "launch and progressively market the cancer-diagnostic solutions to hospitals across China". With increasing incidence and mortality, cancer is the leading cause of death in China and has become a major public health problem, the company noted.

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This project is viewed as being complementary to the group's core business in the development of cell enrichment systems, said Biolidics.

"When combined with other analytical tests, it will have a wide range of applications for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, treatment selection and treatment monitoring," the company added.

This agreement is not expected to have material impact on the net tangible assets and earnings per share of the group for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2020.

The company also noted that this agreement can be further renewed or terminated with mutual consent.

Biolidics shares closed down 0.5 Singapore cents, or 1.59 per cent to S$0.310 on Wednesday, before this announcement.