Exact Sciences outlines pipeline of diagnostics for deadliest cancers

Exact Sciences outlines pipeline of diagnostics for deadliest cancers

By Jeff Engel, Xconomy

Exact SciencesExact Sciences’ ambitious plan to commercialize molecular diagnostic tests for several of the deadliest cancers is starting to come into focus.

Fresh off announcing a partnership with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to co-develop multiple blood-based diagnostic tests for lung cancer, Madison, WI-based Exact (NASDAQ: EXAS) shared new details last week about planned molecular diagnostic tests for cancers of the pancreas and esophagus. Products targeting the latter two diseases will be developed with researchers at the Mayo Clinic, following the five-year extension in February of Exact’s research and development agreement with Rochester, MN-based Mayo—a pact that already yielded Cologuard, an FDA-approved, stool-based DNA test for colorectal cancer.

“We plan for Exact Sciences to be synonymous with the early detection of cancer, and we’re on our way to achieving this goal,” CEO Kevin Conroy said during a presentation Thursday in Madison, where the company gathered investors and financial analysts for an annual company update. (Disclosure: Exact Sciences is an Xconomy underwriter, but our coverage isdetermined independently by our editors.)

Still, bringing the pancreatic, esophageal, and lung cancer products to market could take more than five years and $400 million in research and development spending by Exact,according to early projections by financial analysts with Robert W. Baird & Co. Read more …