On June 13, 2022 Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH), a leading precision oncology company, reported it has purchased the remaining shares of Guardant Health AMEA, Inc., held by SoftBank and its affiliates, giving the company full control over operations throughout the Asia, Middle East and Africa region (Press release, Guardant Health, JUN 13, 2022, View Source [SID1234615939]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
More than half of the world’s estimated new cancer cases come from Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA).1 This acquisition will allow Guardant Health to directly address the growing cancer burden in the region by accelerating the adoption of the company’s blood tests and services used by healthcare providers to detect and manage cancer across all stages of the disease.
Guardant Health AMEA operations support 41 countries across the region. Near term, the company will prioritize bringing blood-based testing to healthcare providers and to patients with advanced cancer in Japan, where, in March 2022, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) granted regulatory approval of Guardant360 CDx, a liquid biopsy test for tumor mutation profiling in patients with advanced solid tumors.
"By acquiring the remaining shares of Guardant Health AMEA, we can focus on creating a unified and centralized global organization that delivers on our promise to help conquer cancer and improve patient outcomes," said Helmy Eltoukhy, Guardant Health chairman and co-CEO. "We believe our blood-based tests can play a significant role in helping address the growing incidence of cancer in the region, and we look forward to continuing to support patients facing cancer diagnoses as we expand our operations in these markets."
In May 2018, Guardant Health and SoftBank Vision Fund established the Guardant Health AMEA joint venture to expand commercialization of Guardant Health’s industry-leading liquid biopsy technology across the region. Under the terms of the parties’ joint venture agreement, Guardant Health paid approximately $177.8 million to acquire the Guardant Health AMEA equity interest held by SoftBank and its affiliates.