The collaboration will expand C2i’s global reach and bring MRD cancer monitoring capabilities for solid tumors to Japan

C2i Genomics, a cancer intelligence company, today announced a collaboration with Riken Genesis Co., Ltd. (RG), a company specializing in providing the service of personalized medicine based on contract analysis of next-generation sequencing and exomes. The two companies have entered a collaboration agreement to bring MRD cancer monitoring to Japan for pharmaceutical and clinical research. 

In Japan, the probability that people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime (based on 2019 data) is 65.5% for men (1 in 2) and 51.2% for women (1 in 2). With a continuous increase in cancer incidence over the last few decades, Japan’s growing need and implementation of well-equipped labs utilizing MRD cancer monitoring will enable physicians to provide more personalized cancer detection and treatment options for their patients.

Under this agreement, RG will work with C2i Genomics to commercialize its C2intelligence cloud-based platform and the C2inform MRD test for pharmaceutical and clinical research and eventually for commercial clinical testing in Japan. C2i’s technology allows cancer tumor burden monitoring using ultra-sensitive whole genome sequencing (WGS) for personalized medicine and accelerated drug development. This collaboration will build on RG’s current capabilities to provide MRD detection for hematology by expanding its MRD capabilities across all solid tumors.

“We are pleased to partner with C2i Genomics to bring innovative molecular assays to the medical community in Japan. C2i Genomics’s sophisticated assays will be an important addition to our portfolio of diagnostic tests,” said Kenji Iwakabe, President and CEO at Riken Genesis. 

RG provides lab-assay services and products for genetic testing based on cutting-edge gene analysis technologies and bioinformatics. The company engages in four businesses: pharmaceutical development support, gene contract analysis, and reagents and diagnostic reagents.

“As our reach expands to Japan, this collaboration will drastically increase the speed and availability in which C2i’s solution is utilized globally—directly affecting the lives of cancer patients for the better as we work toward providing easy accessibility to personalized medicine across the globe,” said Asaf Zviran, CEO and co-founder of C2i Genomics. 

Through WGS, growing genomic and clinical databases, and sophisticated computation and AI, C2i enables high-precision personalized medicine, reduced cancer treatment costs, and accelerated drug development. Leveraging the thousands of already installed genome sequencers around the world, C2i Genomics’ partner labs can process and sequence their own samples, upload the raw sequencing data to a server that C2i provides in their own country, and receive a report within days with their patient’s treatment response estimation and risk of recurrence. 

Now in Japan through the company’s agreement with RG, this collaboration follows several C2i Genomics global partnerships, most recently with AstraZeneca in the US, Karkinos Healthcare in India, OncoDNA across the EU, and SouthEast Asia with NovogeneAIT Genomics.