
Quest makes hay for $300m
Five months from company launch to acquisition: full marks to the management of the liquid biopsy group Haystack Oncology. Quest Diagnostics, needing to bulk up following a sharper than expected decline in its Covid testing revenues, yesterday bought Haystack for $300m cash up front, gaining Haystack’s cancer blood test for minimal residual disease. The unnamed test identifies circulating tumour DNA in a patient’s bloodstream following tumour resection; Quest plans to adapt the assay and launch it next year. Initial efforts will focus on developing MRD tests for colorectal, breast and lung cancers, with Quest paying out up to $150m more on achievement of performance milestones. Quest chose Haystack after holding “many discussions with many of the players in the MRD space”, Jim Davis, Quest’s chief executive, said on the group’s first-quarter earnings call yesterday. Quest believes that Haystack’s test is one of the most sensitive, and “best in class”. But five similar tests are already available, and while not all will compete directly with Quest’s new test the presence of large groups like Guardant could make for a tough battle for market share.
Selected liquid biopsies for minimal residual disease | |||
---|---|---|---|
Company | Liquid biopsy | Tumour type | Status |
Natera | Signatera | Multi-cancer | Launched as LDT Aug 21, 2017; Natera will seek individual FDA approvals as CDx |
Guardant Health | Reveal | Colorectal | Launched as LDT Feb 16, 2021, price approx $3,600 |
Neogenomics | RaDaR | Head and neck | Approved in Europe Jan 2022 and in US as LDT Mar 16, 2023 |
Burning Rock | brProphet | Multi-cancer | Launched Mar 2022 |
C2i Genomics | C2inform | Multi-cancer | Approved in Europe Apr 2022 |
Quest Diagnostics (ex Haystack Oncology) | Unnamed | Colorectal, breast, lung | Launch planned for 2024 |
Invitae | Unnamed | Colorectal, bladder, lung | Maria trial to report 2026 |
Exact Sciences | Unnamed | Colorectal | Correct-MRD II trial to report 2028 |
Grail (Illumina) | Unnamed | Multi-cancer | In development |
LDT = lab-developed test. Source: Evaluate Medtech & company websites. |