Caris Life Sciences expands global reach of its tumour profiling service to Middle East and Africa

-- Expansion offers key international markets innovative, thorough biomarker analysis to improve care for cancer patients

IRVING, Texas, Aug. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences™, a leading biosciences company focused on fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine in oncology, has signed a distribution agreement with IPS Genomix to facilitate patient access to its tumour profiling service, Molecular Intelligence™, in select Middle Eastern and African markets. Given this region's continued investment in healthcare, Caris is uniquely positioned to provide a growing community of oncologists the most relevant and actionable biomarker information to help individualise cancer care.

"The Middle Eastern and African markets represent key areas of unmet medical need and commercial opportunity for Caris Life Sciences, and demonstrate a significant leap forward for our international global expansion plans," said Ian Walker, Vice President – International at Caris Life Sciences. "Partnering with IPS Genomix offers us a large, diverse and experienced team to help realize our goal to bring Caris Molecular Intelligence to patients and physicians across the globe."

Caris Molecular Intelligence™ uses multiple evidence-guided profiling technologies — IHC, FISH/CISH, PCR and Next-Generation Sequencing – to provide oncologists with the most relevant, clinically actionable treatment information to help them personalise care for their patient. By identifying the biomarkers unique to a patient's tumour, Caris can help the physician develop a treatment plan ranging from commercially available agents to active, openly enrolling clinical trials in the patient's geography.  Caris' multi-technology approach assesses the molecular biology of a tumor in order to better understand the gene and protein alterations that may be driving its growth. Testing of multiple clinically relevant analytes in a tumour is typically most applicable for patients with aggressive, rare or refractory cancers where standard-of-care guidelines have been exhausted or are unclear, or where additional clinical trial options are desired. 

"With more than 25 years of experience in the Middle Eastern and African healthcare markets and the dedicated diagnostics sales, marketing, customer service and medical expert teams needed to successfully interface with the local oncology community, IPS Genomix is an ideal partner to Caris as it strives to broaden the reach of its tumour profiling service," said Ahmed Yacout, Chairman and CEO of IPS Group. "Our vision is to have a life-changing impact on our community by democratizing access to global health solutions."

About Caris Life Sciences
Caris Life Sciences is a leading biosciences company focused on fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine.  Caris' specialty oncology reference laboratory offers more than 70 clinically relevant molecular profiling tests, including its comprehensive Caris Molecular Intelligence™ profile. Caris Molecular Intelligence correlates molecular data generated from a patient's tumour with biomarker/drug associations derived from the world's leading clinical cancer literature. With nearly 50,000 patients profiled, this service uses the most advanced and clinically-relevant technologies to provide physicians with information to aid in the selection of personalized cancer treatments more likely to work for each patient. Caris is also developing a series of blood tests based on the company's proprietary Carisome® platform — a blood-based testing technology for diagnosis, prognosis, and theranosis of cancer and other complex diseases. Headquartered in the Dallas metroplex, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.carislifesciences.com.