Guardant Health, the leader in liquid biopsy, announced a strategic collaboration with Principia Biopharma to monitor the response of patients enrolled in clinical trials for Principia's FGFR inhibitor, PRN1371. Principia Biopharma will use Guardant360, the first comprehensive non-invasive method for genomic tumour profiling, to assess how patients and the underlying genomics of their solid tumours respond to its investigational targeted therapy.

Guardant360 digital sequencing allows for comprehensive analysis of all major classes of somatic tumour alterations from a simple blood draw, with near-perfect specificity and high sensitivity. The platform has the potential to help biopharma companies accelerate drug development, whether by finding patients to enroll in clinical trials, or quickly appraising the efficacy of investigational drugs, all while avoiding the costs, risks, and delays of traditional biopsy procedures.

"Our partnership with Guardant Health is an excellent match of a targeted oncology therapy with liquid genomic biopsies of patient tumours. The Guardant360 platform gives us an opportunity to track tumour genetic alterations over time, and to evaluate the effects of Principia's highly targeted FGFR therapy in our phase 1 clinical trial," said Martin Babler, chief executive officer of Principia Biopharma.

The Guardant360 platform can detect circulating tumor DNA at mutant allele fractions (MAF) as low as 0.1 per cent, helping drug development companies sensitively monitor patient response to therapies, and understand underlying tumor evolution and the emergence of resistance.

"Supporting the clinical development of PRN1371 is an excellent example of how our technology can help accelerate the development of targeted cancer therapies," said Helmy Eltoukhy, chief executive officer of Guardant Health. "Sub-clonality is an important driver of patient response. With 80 per cent of patients we see having an alteration below 0.5 per cent MAF, it's critical for a diagnostic tool to rapidly provide sensitive and comprehensive insights. Partnering with Principia will help us show just how rapidly Guardant360 can provide those insights."