SAN DIEGO and SINGAPORE, July 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Epic Sciences (Epic) announced today an agreement with Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings (LabCorp®) (NYSE: LH) to provide circulating tumor cell (CTC) technology and support oncology clinical trials in Asia through Covance Drug Development (Covance). Covance will process patient samples in Singapore, and then send samples to Epic's clinical laboratory in San Diego, which has recently been licensed under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) of 1988, for downstream detection and molecular characterization of CTCs. This agreement expands on a previous contract announced last year between Epic and LabCorp for European clinical trials.
"The expansion of the partnership with LabCorp will provide an important access point for all oncology clinical trials conducted in Asiaand meet the global demand for Epic's circulating tumor cell technology," said Murali Prahalad, Ph.D., president and CEO of Epic Sciences. "For Epic's clinical trial partners and customers, we provide significant, actionable information on patient matching, treatment effectiveness and disease progression to streamline clinical trials for new targeted cancer therapies and to develop essential companion diagnostics."
"We are excited to expand access to Epic's circulating tumor cell technology from Europe to Asia," said Dr. Steven M. Anderson, Chief Scientific Officer of Covance Drug Development. "Epic's technology, which can robustly and reproducibly detect, quantitate and molecularly characterize circulating tumor cells, is a significant tool available to support oncology clinical trials."
Epic is developing new, high-definition diagnostic tests to provide clinically relevant information about how a patient's cancer changes over time, which will allow for improved therapy selection and early drug resistance detection. From a simple blood draw, Epic's no cell left behindTM technology analyzes approximately six million cells across more than 90 parameters to capture and analyze all possible types of circulating tumor cells. Unlike other blood-based biomarkers used in liquid biopsies, CTCs hold both genetic and proteomic information and encompass the profiles of both primary tumors and metastases. Epic's technology can incorporate CTC enumeration, quantitative protein biomarker analysis and single-cell genomic analysis by next generation sequencing (NGS) or fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) to give a comprehensive picture of a patient's cancer.
LabCorp is the world's leading healthcare diagnostics company, providing comprehensive clinical laboratory services through LabCorp Diagnostics, and end-to-end drug development support through Covance Drug Development. With combined revenue proforma for the acquisition of Covance in excess of $8.5 billion in 2014 and more than 48,000 employees in over 60 countries, LabCorp offers innovative solutions to healthcare stakeholders, including physicians, patients and consumers, biopharmaceutical companies, government agencies, managed care organizations, hospitals, and clinical labs.
FDA Grants Priority Review to Merck’s sBLA for Winrevair After Early Success in ZENITH PAH Trial
July 2nd 2025Merck’s bid to update Winrevair’s label advances with FDA priority review, backed by Phase III ZENITH data showing a 76% reduction in major morbidity and mortality events in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Unifying Industry to Better Understand GCP Guidance
May 7th 2025In this episode of the Applied Clinical Trials Podcast, David Nickerson, head of clinical quality management at EMD Serono; and Arlene Lee, director of product management, data quality & risk management solutions at Medidata, discuss the newest ICH E6(R3) GCP guidelines as well as how TransCelerate and ACRO have partnered to help stakeholders better acclimate to these guidelines.
Phase III PROMINENT Trial Initiated to Evaluate Felzartamab for Primary Membranous Nephropathy
June 30th 2025The global Phase III PROMINENT trial has begun dosing patients to evaluate felzartamab in treating primary membranous nephropathy, a serious autoimmune kidney disorder with no FDA-approved therapies.
Putting Collective Insights Into Action to Advance Cancer Care: Key Examples From ASCO 2025
June 27th 2025At ASCO 2025, clinical operations leaders gained critical insights into how AI tools, bispecific antibodies, and evolving treatment paradigms are reshaping trial design, endpoint selection, and patient stratification.