Strand partners MSMF for translational lab

This is a major milestone towards enabling an ecosystem of personalized medical treatment for patients with cancer and other genetic diseases.

Based on statistics, nearly seven lakh Indians die of cancer every year, while over 10 lakh are newly diagnosed with some form of the disease.

According to the latest World Cancer Report from the World Health Organization (WHO), there are over 4.77 lakh men and 5.37 lakh women diagnosed with cancer in India in 2012 alone.

The scale of these challenges requires the Indian healthcare industry to use affordability as a driver of innovation.

“We believe this collaboration will help us foster innovation and encourage in-depth research in the genomics space and thereby provide better care for patients with cancer and other genetic diseases,” said Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon.

Strand through its expertise will offer comprehensive genomic testing for cancer and other germline/hereditary conditions at highly affordable costs. In addition, the collaboration will also entail promoting research in the field of genomics, conducting medical and non-medical programs, seminars and talks shows, assisting clinicians and scientists in performing quality research, and towards making genomics research resources and data available to scientists.

Talking about this partnership, Dr Vijay Chandru, Chairman & CEO, Strand Life Sciences, said, “This partnership is recognition of our joint commitment to bringing best in class healthcare technologies closer to people in India at affordable costs."

"As part of the vision laid out in the partnership, Strand has developed an affordable Hereditary Breast Cancer Diagnostic Test that will cost significantly less than comparable tests available in the West and India. This is the first of many innovations that we will develop at the SAMS translational lab.”