Apollo Hospitals Launches Strand’s Clinical Genomic Tests For Personalized Medicine

Apollo Hospitals announced the launch of cutting-edge clinical genomic tests from the Strand Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, a part of Strand Life Sciences across its hospital network. These tests in oncology, cardiovascular, heritable eye diseases and rare genetic disorders shall be integrated into clinical practice by Apollo’s subsidiary, Sapien Biosciences in partnership with Strand Life Sciences. These tests, will help doctors diagnose disease more precisely, identify the optimal treatment and monitor disease & treatment course for better outcomes.

Genomics is integral to Apollo’s focus on Research and Innovations. Genomic testing involves analyses of patient genomes – genes and sequences of DNA/RNA. The analysis helps create better prognostic tools for improved disease screening and prevention strategies. The patient benefits from optimized clinical care, personalization of treatment & monitoring of outcomes. These tests come with comprehensive pre- & post-test counselling to help the patient & their physicians to integrate the tests results into the clinical care provided. Ms. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals says,“Apollo has always believed that personalized medicine is the future of healthcare delivery. Our Chairman, Dr. P.C Reddy’s foresight of personalized health is becoming a reality today with the availability of such cutting-edge genomic tests.”

Sapien Biosciences was launched with the vision of being a world-class biobank & personalized-medicine company. Sapien has developed a comprehensive strategy & roadmap for the integration of such cutting-edge genomic testing into the clinical practice at Apollo. Consequently, Sapien has identified the best-of-breed players in this space, mapped-out the various tests & forged strategic partnerships. The first of such partnerships is with Strand Life sciences to launch a set of clinical genomic tests in oncology, cardiovascular, heritable eye diseases and rare genetic disorders at Apollo. These tests are designed to identify the specific, and often novel, mutations (hereditary in some cases) that drive disease progression.

Strand has been a pioneer in research informatics for more than a decade with over 2000 research labs worldwide (about 30% of global market share) and is now using its deep genomics expertise to offer comprehensive clinical genomics tests and genetic counselling services in disease specialty areas such as cancer, rare disease, cardiology, ophthalmology, and diabetes.

Commenting on the partnership, Ms. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals says, “We are pleased that the Sapien team has drawn up a comprehensive plan for the introduction and integration of such diagnostic & genomic tests at Apollo. We are excited about this partnership with Strand Life Sciences. Under Vijay’s leadership, Strand is now translating their world-class expertise into the clinic through the introduction of these high-end genomic tests which will ultimately help us diagnose and treat patients with more precision and lesser suffering at Apollo.”

Speaking on the occasion, Seemant Jauhari, CEO, Research & Innovations, Apollo Hospitals said, “Through this partnership, we aspire to pioneer adoption & integration of cutting edge technologies on a pan-India scale that will enable our patients to benefit from the Strand tests for screening, diagnosis & treatment personalization. The coming year is scheduled for several such exciting collaborations and shall be a tipping point for healthcare. We shall complement this capability with disruptive innovations in analytics, devices, and biomarkers going forward.”

Launching these tests at Apollo, Dr. Vijay Chandru, Chairman & CEO, Strand Life Sciences, said “In 2011 Strand made the commitment to translate its capabilities in molecular biology to focus on evolving into a new generation health care company. Strand now works with over 50 hospitals and a large network of clinics across India and parts of Africa and is innovating to make genomics-based diagnostics affordable for India and other geographies. Strand is committed to expanding clinical genomics as a new paradigm for clinical decision support and is extremely pleased that Apollo Hospitals, India’s leading healthcare enterprise, through Sapien Biosciences, has with great foresight integrated and adopted Strand’s clinical genomic tests for enabling personalized and improved medical care for patients at Apollo.”

Announcing the partnership, Mr. Sreevatsa Natarajan, CEO, Sapien Biosciences said, “Sapien’s strategy for genomics at Apollo is pivoted around the clinician’s involvement in prescribing these tests & interpreting the results within the appropriate clinical context for optimal patient benefit; consistent with global best practices. Genomics is increasingly being adopted in the clinic to enable precision diagnostics & personalized medicine and Strand is at the forefront of this revolution. We are very happy to be associated with such a pioneering company and look forward to the systematic roll-out and integration of these tests within the clinical practice at Apollo.”

Previously Apollo, through Sapien, had launched myPLATELET^TM, India’s first and only personalized diagnostic test that combines assessment of a patients’ genotype and platelet function to allow their physicians to tailor their blood-thinning medication. Sapien is tying up with several other leading diagnostic companies and is expected to announce several other such partnerships over the next few months to launch similar cutting-edge tests at Apollo.

About Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. (AHEL)

It was in 1983, that Dr. Prathap Reddy made a pioneering endeavor by launching India’s first corporate hospital – Apollo Hospital in Chennai. Now, as Asia largest and most trusted healthcare group, its presence includes over 8,600 beds across 50 Hospitals, 1,632 Pharmacies, 92 Primary Care and Diagnostic Clinics, 100 Telemedicine units across 10 countries. Health Insurance services, Global Projects Consultancy, 15 colleges of Nursing and Hospital Management, a Research Foundation with a focus on global Clinical Trials, epidemiological studies, genetic research and the upcoming first Proton Therapy Center across Asia, Africa and Australia.

In a rare honor, the Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in recognition of Apollo’s contribution, the first for a healthcare organization. Apollo Hospitals Chairman, Dr. Prathap C Reddy, was conferred with the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 2010. For more than 30 years, the Apollo Hospitals Group has continuously excelled and maintained leadership in medical innovation, world-class clinical services and cutting-edge technology. Our hospitals are consistently ranked amongst the best hospitals globally for advanced medical services and research.

About Sapien Biosciences

Sapien Biosciences is a joint venture between Apollo Hospitals & Saarum Innovations to create a world-class bio-bank and personalized medicine company that leverages Apollo’s leadership position in healthcare and Saarum’s cutting-edge life sciences research expertise for novel clinical and R&D applications. Sapien’s primary objective is to build a high-quality bio-repository that integrates ethically consented human samples with associated medical, pathological & treatment data and leverage this resource to develop & deliver high-end diagnostic applications. Further Sapien has entered into an alliance with Apollo Hospitals that allows Sapien to front-end Apollo’s personalized medicine initiatives. This allows Sapien to bring novel cutting-edge diagnostics to Apollo, either on its own or in collaboration with best-of-breed global institutions world-wide thereby enabling world-class healthcare to improve patient outcomes. Sapien has fully functional labs located within the Apollo Health City Campus in Hyderabad. For more information about Sapien Biosciences, visit www.sapienbio.com.

About Strand Life Sciences

Founded in 2000, Strand Life Sciences is a leader in technology innovations for healthcare using genomics. Strand’s entry into healthcare was through software products and services that combine advanced visualization, systems modeling, and scientific insights for enabling biological and health sciences research. Over 2000 research labs worldwide (about 30% of global market share) and 50 hospitals have adopted Strand’s genomics solutions today. These include leading clinical research, pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations. With a highly skilled interdisciplinary workforce of more than 200 computer and life scientists, Strand has set up three clinical and translational research laboratories in Bangalore that are enabled with cutting-edge Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies. Strand is a portfolio company of Biomark Capital Partners, a San Francisco based global fund for health and life sciences. By enabling DNA sequence-based diagnostics and clinical genomic data interpretation using a strong foundation of computational, scientific, and medical expertise, Strand is bringing personalized medicine to the world. For more information,visit www.strandls.com or www.strandcenters.com or follow us on twitter:@StrandLife

For more information on the partnership, please contact:

Kavita Singh | Kavita.singh@bm.com | + 91  9642320808