Singaporean cancer diagnostics start-up eyes China, home to a third of the world's deaths from the disease
A Singaporean medical start-up that uses blood tests to detect six major cancers in their early stages aims to access the market in China, which accounts for almost a third of the world’s deaths from the disease.
MiRXES, a spin-off of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, is developing screening tests for lung, colorectal, liver, and breast cancer, said the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Lihan Zhou.
The company launched GASTROClear, its micro RNA blood test for the early detection of gastric cancer, in 2019 and set up manufacturing facilities and clinical labs in China in the same year in preparation to commercialise the product there.
Founded in 2014, MiRXES also has a manufacturing base in Singapore.
“The plan was largely disrupted by Covid,” said Zhou. The company spent most of its time supporting the Singaporean authorities with coronavirus testing last year, using its jointly developed multi-virus test kit that can detect both Covid-19 and the seasonal flu.
Zhou said the company is now ready to focus on its cancer diagnostics and the commercialisation of its product in China and other Asian countries such as Singapore and Japan. “We are accelerating regulatory approval and adoption of GASTROClear in China,” he said.
MiRXES’s China operation is launching a 12,000-person clinical trial for its gastric cancer screening test which it hopes to register with the National Medical Products Administration.
It is estimated that the number of new cancer cases reached 19.3 million globally last year, while nearly 10 million people died from the disease. About a quarter of the new cases and 30 per cent of the deaths occurred in China , according to the Chinese Medical Journal, a publication of the Chinese Medical Association, the country’s largest and oldest non-governmental medical organisation.
Lung cancer remained the most common form, followed by colorectal and gastric cancer, according to the journal, released in April.
“China is facing an ageing population and the cost is expensive,” said Zhou. To alleviate the burden, the government has set cancer screening as a priority in its national health strategy.
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The number of mainland Chinese cancer diagnostics companies has surged. Zhou does not see it as a competition, but a drive to speed up the development of the screening test market in the next few years.
China has the largest pool of elderly people on the planet. The number of people aged 60 and over is forecast to surge to nearly 500 million, while the number aged over 65 is seen reaching 370 million by the middle of the century.
“We believe that prevention is better than cure, and early detection will deliver major clinical and socioeconomic benefits as our populations age,” Zhou said. “What Covid taught the world is the importance of early detection, and the importance of surveillance.”
He said the company is planning its next round of fundraising for its pipeline of several different cancer test kits in the next 18 to 24 months. An initial public offering in either Hong Kong or on New York’s Nasdaq will be an option, he said.
Last month, the company raised US$77 million (S$104 million) in Series C funding to accelerate its push to deliver early cancer detection tests, bringing the total amount secured to US$120 million.
The funding round was led by CR-CP Life Science Fund, a 50-50 joint venture between China Resources Group and Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group. Other investors included global health care investment firm Rock Springs Capital and EDBI, the investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board.
This article was first published in South China Morning Post.
