Bangalore: With the aim of making genomics-based diagnostics accessible and affordable for people in India, Strand Life Sciences Private Limited, a global life sciences & clinical genomics company headquartered in Bangalore, entered into a partnership with theMazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation (MSMF) to set up the Strand at Mazumdar-Shaw (SAMS) translationallabin the Mazumdar-Shaw Centre for Translational Research (MSCTR) located at Bangalore.

This is a major milestone towards enabling an ecosystem of personalized medical treatment for patients with cancer and other genetic diseases. Based on statistics, nearly seven lakh Indians die of cancer every year, while over 10 lakh are newly diagnosed with some form of the disease. According to the latest World Cancer Report from the World Health Organization (WHO), there are over 4.77 lakh men and 5.37 lakh women diagnosed with cancer in India in 2012 alone. The scale of these challenges requires the Indian healthcare industry to use affordability as a driver of innovation.

“It gives us great pleasure to partner withStrand Life Sciences, a pioneer in genomics and personalized medicine. With evolving healthcare systems, it is imperative that we are constantly innovating and developing capabilities that will provide personalized treatment and quality care to the people of India. We believe this collaboration will help us foster innovation and encourage in-depth research in the genomics space and thereby provide better care for patients with cancer and other genetic diseases,” said Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon.

Strand through its expertise will offer comprehensive genomic testing for cancer and other germline/hereditary conditions at highly affordable costs. In addition, the collaboration will also entail promoting research in the field of genomics, conducting medical and non-medical programs, seminars and talks shows, assisting clinicians and scientists in performing quality research, and towards making genomics research resources and data available to scientists.

Talking about this partnership, Dr Vijay Chandru, Chairman & CEO, Strand Life Sciences said, “The Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation has shown great foresight and magnanimity in helping us work towards the goal of providing the leading edge of genomic medicine at affordable prices in India and elsewhere. This collaboration provides Strand with an exciting opportunity to conduct and promote in-depth research in the field of genomic sequencing based diagnostics. This partnership is recognition of our joint commitment to bringing best in class healthcare technologies closer to people in India at affordable costs.

As part of the vision laid out in the partnership, Strand has developed an affordable Hereditary Breast Cancer Diagnostic Test that will cost significantly less than comparable tests available in the West and India. This is the first of many innovations that we will develop at the SAMS translational lab”

Strand has been a pioneer in the delivery of advanced clinical genomics solutions for healthcare institutions in India since early 2013. Strand has a distinguished team of over 200 scientists and researchers working to create some unique solutions in genomics and personalized medicine.

About Strand Life Sciences

Strand Life Sciences – “Strand” has pioneered the practice of data science in life and health sciences. Strand’s segue into life sciences was through informatics products and services for research biologists, chemists, and toxicologists that combine advanced visualization, predictive systems modeling, data integration and scientific content management. Over 2000 research laboratories worldwide (about 30% of global market share) are licensees of Strand’s technology products as are several leading Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies. Ranked in the top tier of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) informatics providers by Frost & Sullivan, Strand Life Sciences is a portfolio company of Biomark Capital Partners, a San Francisco based global fund for health and life sciences. By enhancing sequence-based diagnostics and clinical genomic data interpretation using a strong foundation of computational, scientific, and medical expertise, Strand is bringing individualized medicine to the world.

For more information, visit www.strandls.com or follow us on twitter @StrandLife.

About Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation and Mazumdar Shaw Center for Translational Research

Mazumdar Shaw Medical Foundation (MSMF) is a not-for-profit company founded by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. The main objective of MSMF is to undertake, foster and engage in R&D towards advancing the knowledge of diseases, particularly cancer, as the means for improving treatment possibilities and enhancing the delivery of healthcare. It is also actively engaged in providing financial assistance to patients who cannot afford treatment for debilitating diseases.

Mazumdar Shaw Center for Translational Research (MSCTR), the research arm of MSMF, provides an interface for the integration of engineering, science, and medicine in a discovery-centered environment to catalyze scientific breakthroughs resulting in more effective healthcare solution for a wide range of human diseases. The guiding principle of all research at the center is to shorten the development time that is required to translate a scientific idea to a new treatment modality (bench-to-bedside paradigm). The center is housed in the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center (MSCC), and the researchers at MSCTR work closely with the clinicians at MSCC to tackle relevant clinical problems.