Strand Aims To Carve Out A Unique Niche In The Area Of Clinical Research

Dr Ramesh Hariharan, CEO, Strand Life Sciences, elaborates on his companys future projects, growth strategies and more, in an interview with Usha Sharma.

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Tell us about the Strand Life Science’s strategic partnership with Quadria Capital and how will this partnership enable preventive healthcare?

Strand Life Sciences is an investee of Quadria Capital and we partnered with them in early 2018. The partnership was made with a view of redefining precision medicine by increase the accessibility and affordability of Strand’s key technology. Given their deep operating knowledge and experience of building healthcare businesses around the region, we felt that they were the right partner to help launch Strand into its next phase of growth.

Strand’s technology includes cutting-edge genomic tests for both preventive and diagnostic applications. Preventive applications include testing individuals for inherited risk of cancer (10 per cent or so of all breast and ovarian cancers have an inherited cause), so they can take preventive and prophylactic measures. Strand has a leadership position in India on this test.

Quadria’s investment has helped Strand with continued R&D to reduce the cost of this testing down to a fraction of western costs. Another emerging preventive application is that of the use of a liquid biopsy (a blood draw) for the early detection of cancer. As is well known, cure rates and survival in cancer are highest when detected early, and reduce sharply if the detection happens late. Quadria’s investment has also helped Strand continue it’s R&D programne. Strand’s first publication on this topic has just appeared in press and shows that ~35 per cent of a wide range of cancers can indeed be detected at a very early stage from just a blood draw. Strand is now in the midst of its next study on this theme, in collaboration with key academic groups in the US.