India’s expertise in genomics and personalized medicine is opening up avenues for several bioinformatics and bio-pharma entrepreneurs to offer their expertise. The effort enables rapid and effective interpretation of pharmacogenomics to analyze genetic structure affecting an individual's response to drugs.

This is where Bengaluru-based Strand Life Sciences has been able to take lead with its clinical genomics interpretation and reporting platform. The company has inked a memorandum of understanding with the  non-profit  acute-care, 443-bed El Camino Hospital, California to set up the  Strand Center for Genomics and Personalized Treatment (SCGPT) in the US.  The pact would accelerate the adoption of Strand’s next generation sequencing (NGS) based research and counselling services by the physicians at the hospital and its partner clinics.
 
“The Centre would transform the diagnosis of cardiology and oncology which are seen to be challenging diseases besides focus on exome sequencing  for preventive and personalized medicine.  We would provide genomics-based analysis and interpretation for improved health outcomes. Now this is a depiction of our research in computational biology being taken from the bench-to-bedside”, Dr. Vijay Chandru, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, Strand Life Sciences told Pharmabiz.
 
“This is possibly the first initiative by an Indian bioinformatics-bio-pharma company to portray its innovation and being  accepted for clinical application in US.  So long it has been the technology application of the West embedded into Indian healthcare diagnostics and treatment.  We have combined clinical laboratory experience with our computational capability to build an application that accelerates clinical genomics interpretation and reporting with Early Access Programme (EAP), he added.
 
Last month, Strand announced its  EAP for academic and commercial clinical genomics labs to conduct laboratory derived sequencing tests  like the diagnostic gene panels, whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing.  While Strand has already signed up with several large academic hospital labs in India, it is scouting for  additional labs to participate.
 
Over 2000 research laboratories worldwide  accounting for around  30 per cent of global market share are licensees of Strand's technology products along leading bio-pharma  companies. It is reported that the genomics-based diagnostics global  market is estimated to be valued at $30 billion by 2015.
 
“We would  work with Strand Life Sciences on a series of projects to bring  genomic medicine to clinical practice”, stated Dr Eric Pifer, chief medical officer,  El Camino Hospital who was here in Bengaluru representing the a  delegation, led by the Mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee.

According to Dr Nandini Tandon, vice chairman, El Camino Hospital, there  is a lot that can be learnt from India with and  shared with  US and vice versa  in the area of healthcare. In order to maximize the benefits from Indian healthcare, the delegation, is meeting up with  the government and business heads to exchange best practices in the areas of infrastructure, information technology, health and life sciences, added Dr Tandon who is the first Asian to serve on El Camino Hospital Board and serve on the Bay Area Council Economic Institute Board of Directors.  

Now Dr Tandon will co-chair the health and life sciences segment and  introduce the delegation to healthcare leaders in India including  physicians on the delegation, to help apply the latest innovations in medical practices to combat cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes that specifically affect the population of South East Asia.