The story
The American biotechnology company Guardant Health, which produces liquid biopsy tests to detect cancer from mutations and other modifications in blood samples, was co-founded by Helmy Eltoukhy and AmirAli Talasaz during 2012–2013. According to John Dorfman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Talasaz and Eltoukhy discovered a technique which "involves detecting and monitoring tumor fragments circulating in the patient's bloodstream", as an alternative to traditional tissue biopsies. The duo met at Stanford University in 2002 and worked together at Illumina, until Talasaz left in 2012.
Early in its history, Guardant Health acquired multiple patents by Swiss biochemist Maurice Stroun, who became a founding advisor. In 2015, the company had 40 patents and was developing a blood test to "identify all classes of actionable tumor genomic alterations", according to VentureBeat. Guardant Health said the test would be the "first and only comprehensive biopsy-free cancer test available". In 2016, the company announced clinical trial results demonstrating the test "detected disease-associated genetic mutations that were also present in 94% to 100% of the solid tissues extracted from the study's subjects".
The company's U.S. initial public offering in 2018 raised $237.5 million, valuing Guardant Health at $3.3 billion. In December 2022, Guardant Health announced the results of a study on its blood-based screening test for colorectal cancers, which it began in 2019. The study included 20,000 participants identified as having an average risk for colorectal cancer. Results showed the test was 83 percent accurate at detecting the presence of cancer, with a 10 percent false positivity rate. Bloomberg reported that the results were short of the 85 percent accuracy rate that investors expected, and the company's stock price fell following the news. A competitor's stool-based test for the same cancer is 92 percent accurate.
Funding
Guardant Health raised approximately $550 million in funding in its first six years. Aydin Senkut was an early investor. The company raised $30 million in 2014, including $10 million from Sequoia Capital. In 2015, Guardant Health raised $50 million in a venture round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The funding was used for infrastructure and growing operations. Guardant Health's Series D round in January 2017 raised approximately $100 million, bringing total funding to $190 million.
In 2017, the company raised $360 million in a round led by a subsidiary of SoftBank Group. The funding supports an attempt to sequence the DNA of 1 million cancer patients in five years, bring to market a blood test to screen for early signs of cancer, and a blood test to detect residual disease in cancer survivors. Guardant Health and SoftBank formed the joint venture to expand the use of Guardant360 in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The joint venture, called Guardant Health AMEA, launched in 2018 and was purchased by Guardant Health for approximately $178 million in 2022.
From Wikipedia’s article on Guardant Health, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7