TAKE2 HEALTH LTD., a healthcare technology company based in Hong Kong, China, has entered into a definitive license agreement with GRAIL, Inc., for the exclusive worldwide rights to an intellectual property portfolio for the early detection of NPC. The company is co-founded by Professor Dennis Lo, Professor Rossa Chiu and Professor Allen Chan of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. TAKE2 aims to be a key driver that makes the most disruptive healthcare inventions widely accessible to the public in China and Asia.

TAKE2 will initially focus on the development and commercialization of technologies that can allow the early detection of nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). Professor Lo and his team invented the NPC early detection technologies, which were previously licensed to GRAIL. Professor Lo conducted and published a landmark study which demonstrated that circulating DNA analysis is useful for screening early asymptomatic NPC, and his research was among the 10 ‘Notable Articles of 2017’ of The New England Journal of Medicine.

“One mission of TAKE2 is to provide individuals a second chance in health through the early detection of disease.” said Professor Lo. “Our initial focus will be making our early detection technology for NPC widely accessible to those who need it most. NPC is most prevalent in China and the ASEAN countries, a region with a total population size of over 2 billion, and is a deadly cancer as the majority of cases are diagnosed at late stages. The creation of TAKE2 is thus both timely and meaningful.”