US-headquartered startup C2i Genomics has announced a collaboration with Riken Genesis (RG) Co. to bring minimal residual disease (MRD) cancer monitoring to Japan for pharmaceutical and clinical research. 

In Japan, the probability that people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime (based on 2019 data) is 65.5% for men and 51.2% for women. With a continuous increase in cancer incidence over the last few decades, Japan’s growing need and implementation of well-equipped labs utilising MRD cancer monitoring will enable physicians to provide more personalized cancer detection and treatment options for their patients.

Under this agreement, RG will work with C2i Genomics to commercialise its C2intelligence cloud-based platform and the C2inform MRD test for pharmaceutical and clinical research and eventually for commercial clinical testing in Japan. C2i’s technology allows cancer tumor burden monitoring using ultra-sensitive whole genome sequencing (WGS) for personalised medicine and accelerated drug development. This collaboration will build on RG’s current capabilities to provide MRD detection for haematology by expanding its MRD capabilities across all solid tumors.

RG provides lab-assay services and products for genetic testing based on cutting-edge gene analysis technologies and bioinformatics. The company engages in four businesses: pharmaceutical development support, gene contract analysis, and reagents and diagnostic reagents.

Now in Japan through the company’s agreement with RG, this collaboration follows several C2i Genomics global partnerships, most recently with AstraZeneca in the US, Karkinos Healthcare in India, OncoDNA across the EU, and SouthEast Asia with NovogeneAIT Genomics.