Harbinger Health Announces New Partnership with Leading Cancer Center to Accelerate Clinical Evidence Generation
Collaboration to include future projects developing novel tools for cancer screening and detection that leverage premier academic institution’s large set of diverse cancer samples
Cambridge, Mass., November 7, 2024 – Harbinger Health (“Harbinger,” “the Company”), a biotechnology company pioneering new technologies to fundamentally change cancer screening and detection, today announced a new collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (“MSK”), one of the world’s largest leading cancer centers, to advance the Company’s blood-based early cancer detection platform.
In the near-term, Harbinger will leverage MSK’s expertise as a premier cancer center and academic institution to validate the Company’s assay from its Cancer Origin Epigenetics-Harbinger Health (CORE-HH, NCT05435066) prospective clinical study and advance its mission of developing an affordable, accessible and clinically informative test. This parallel study will complement Harbinger’s ongoing work with the Sarah Cannon Research Institute and will focus on a large sample of cancers. Luke R.G. Pike, M.D., D.Phil., Director of Brain Radiation Oncology at MSK, and MCED Lead for the institution’s Global Biomarker Development Program, will serve as lead investigator and assume the role of co-chair for the Sarah Cannon study.
In the long term, Harbinger and MSK aim to extend validation to patients with a broader range of tumor types, enhance the next generation of diagnostic tests, and collaborate on real-world studies for evidence generation to support future regulatory submissions. This collaboration is part of Harbinger’s long-term strategy to build a diverse recruitment base – encompassing both ethnic diversity and a wide variety of cancer types – while continuously refining, enhancing, and validating its technology.
“We are pleased to collaborate with MSK’s renowned team to tap into their state-of-the-art research capabilities and the exceptional diversity of patients with cancer they treat every day,” shared interim Chief Medical Officer Hutan Ashrafian, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A. “MSK will play a critical role in turbocharging our data collection efforts and opening new research directions in the development of affordable, accessible and clinically informative early cancer detection tests for all patients. Together, we are working towards world-class early cancer detection that could transform the way cancer is diagnosed and managed on a societal level.”
“Developing a deeper understanding of early cancer detection using blood tests is an important area of research for us at MSK as we continuously explore ways to improve the care we provide our patients,” said Dr. Pike. “Harbinger’s test is compelling for its basis in the biology in the origins of cancer, an insight that has long been known in the cancer field but inaccessible to date as a means of detection. This effort reflects our shared commitment to advancing technology in ways that will benefit patients and healthcare systems alike. We look forward to seeing the impact this collaboration will have in the years to come.”
As the CORE-HH study progresses, the collaboration with MSK will serve as a common platform for data recruitment and transformation, building a comprehensive validation program for Harbinger’s two-tier, multi-cancer blood test. This will contribute significantly towards Harbinger’s commercialization strategy, adding value to the company’s evidence base and positioning it for long-term success.
About Harbinger Health
Harbinger Health is pioneering the detection of early cancer and enabling foundationally new approaches to cancer screening, diagnosis and management. The company combines advances in artificial intelligence with proprietary insights into the biology of the beginnings of cancer to identify cancer before it is visible or symptomatic with the aim of developing low-cost, multi-cancer blood tests. Harbinger envisions a future where, instead of keeping cancer from spreading, it could be kept from forming, making a cancer diagnosis a routine health problem to be addressed rather than a life-altering event to be feared with profound implications for people, healthcare systems and societies. Harbinger was founded by Flagship Pioneering after three years of foundational research in its Labs unit and launched in 2020. Learn more about Harbinger by visiting www.harbinger-health.com or following us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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