MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GRAIL, Inc., a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured, today announced an agreement with Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), the leading provider of diagnostic information services, to provide phlebotomy services to support Galleri™, GRAIL’s multi-cancer early detection blood test.
Quest Diagnostics maintains approximately 2,200 patient service centers and, through its ExamOne business, 5,000 mobile phlebotomists with expertise in at-home visits. Quest’s phlebotomy network will help provide blood specimen collection for Galleri in the United States once the test becomes available this year.
“Today, the majority of cancers go undetected until too late when outcomes are often deadly, and we believe Galleri could offer a unique and potentially life-saving solution by finding multiple types of cancers earlier,” said Dr. Joshua Ofman, chief medical officer and head of external affairs at GRAIL. “We are pleased to work with Quest and are very encouraged by the interest in Galleri. Our agreement with Quest will help us support convenient access to blood collection for patients and healthcare providers.”
“Quest Diagnostics is committed to providing the broadest access to diagnostic innovation. That includes multi-cancer early detection, an important area of oncology diagnostics with potential to radically improve cancer screening, monitoring, and treatment,” said Kristie M. Dolan, vice president and general manager, Oncology Clinical Franchise, for Quest Diagnostics. “Galleri is a pioneer in early detection innovation, and we are eager to support GRAIL’s efforts to make it accessible to patients across the United States.”
In January, GRAIL announced it expects to introduce Galleri in the second quarter of 2021. The blood test, which will be prescription only, will be available initially through partner health systems, medical practices, and self-insured employers.
An earlier version of Galleri demonstrated the ability to detect more than 50 types of cancers — over 45 of which lack recommended screening tests today — with a low false positive rate of less than 1%. When a cancer signal is detected, Galleri can determine the location of the cancer signal with high accuracy, all from a single blood draw. Galleri is intended to be used alongside standard of care screenings.
Galleri is available under investigational use in PATHFINDER, GRAIL’s prospective, interventional study evaluating the implementation of Galleri in clinical practice. Galleri is also expected to be offered to eligible patients in the United Kingdom (UK) later this year as part of a partnership with the UK National Health Service to support its Long Term Plan for earlier cancer diagnoses in an effort to transform cancer outcomes.
About GRAIL
GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. GRAIL is focused on saving lives and improving health by pioneering new technologies for early cancer detection. The company is using the power of next-generation sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer science and data science to overcome one of medicine’s greatest challenges with Galleri™, GRAIL’s multi-cancer early detection test. An earlier version of Galleri demonstrated the ability to detect more than 50 types of cancers — over 45 of which lack recommended screening tests today in the U.S. — with a low false positive rate of less than 1%. GRAIL is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with locations in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and the United Kingdom. It is supported by leading global investors and pharmaceutical, technology, and healthcare companies.
About Quest Diagnostics
Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world's largest database of clinical lab results, our diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors and improve health care management. Quest annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States, and our 50,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com.
