KPMG perspective on this innovative technology
The market is as bullish as ever on liquid biopsy and the opportunities this technology represents to stakeholders across life sciences, but what’s real and what’s hype?
While it holds much future promise, the path to unlocking the full market potential of liquid biopsy is not necessarily clear to stakeholders such as pharma and biotech, diagnostics companies, and healthcare providers. We believe that:
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Pharma and Biotech: Invest in applications of liquid biopsy to expand from mostly treatment selection (including CDx) to include recurrence monitoring, specifically focusing on MRD (minimal residual disease).
A small number of tumor cells can remain in the body after a “curative-intent” treatment, driving relapse or recurring disease, either locally or through distant metastases. This is MRD. Due to the microscopic nature of the residual tumor cells, detection is particularly challenging and well-suited for liquid biopsy, which can detect circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating tumor cells (CTC), or tumor specific microRNA.
With its advantages around non-invasiveness and quick turnaround time, liquid biopsies and improved MRD testing can be particularly useful in investigational trials. Liquid biopsy can be used to complement tissue profiling and patient selection, potentially resulting in faster identification of responders, improved efficacy outcomes, and more cost-efficient trials. With additional investment and clinical evidence, liquid biopsy can transition from its current role as a supplementary testing tool to a key cog in the care continuum.
Pharma and biotech must continue to explore the application of liquid biopsy in investigational trials for MRD monitoring and invest in programs that drive clinical evidence generation to expand the use of these tests beyond treatment selection.
An increasing number of liquid biopsy tests such as Guardant Health’s Guardant360 CDx, Foundation Medicine’s FoundationOne CDx, and Menarini Silicon Biosystem’s CELLSEARCH are being used across many parts of the oncology care continuum.
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By exploring alternative technologies that test for new targets such as RNA and proteins (instead of ctDNA, which has been a primary focus of the market), Dx manufacturers and labs may be able to improve test accuracy, an issue that has plagued this technology since its discovery many decades ago.
Additionally, market value has largely been concentrated in treatment selection, where tissue is often preferred if available – improving test quality to expand application across the diagnostic continuum, particularly for monitoring, early screening and risk stratification, will be particularly beneficial in unlocking market potential.
Tumor-agnostic testing for therapy selection seems to be an idealistic ambition at this time, but as advances in tumor agnostic therapies continue to drive innovation in the biopharma industry, with updated approval processes at both the FDA and EMA that support this innovation, Dx companies need to follow suit and pave the way with tumor agnostic testing – better liquid biopsy tests would lend itself well to this purpose.
While there are a few large liquid biopsy panels for therapy selection on the market, companies that offer smaller, more targeted panels are carving out a niche for themselves and getting adopted by clinicians. This also addresses the reimbursement challenges that are associated with testing everything under the sun as payors establish high standards for RWE on overall cost effectiveness.
While specialty labs (e.g., Grail, FoundationOne) have taken a lead role in driving research and development of marketed liquid biopsy tests, hospital and reference labs can play a supporting role in accelerating market expansion by mirroring the investment in specialized molecular pathology and NGS testing capabilities which are foundational to liquid biopsy LDT proliferation. This proliferation would then drive clinical and real world evidence (RWE) generation and improve test availability once validated.
Diagnostic manufacturers and labs must continue to innovate and gather data demonstrating the clinical utility of liquid biopsy tests at different points across the care continuum while also focusing on tailoring solutions to the specific unmet needs for oncology indications where possible.
Increasing use of targeted therapies will continue to help drive an increased patient pool size for LBx testing in therapy selection and recurrence monitoring, areas that are seeing growing LBx uptake.
Providers expect to increase the use of single and combination targeted / IO therapy 5 years from today…
…which will drive more LBx testing for treatment selection and recurrence monitoring
Use of liquid biopsy testing beyond therapy selection in the clinics today is still limited and this is attributed to multiple challenges, including:
However, hospitals and AMCs can drive awareness, education, and improved testing outcomes by developing capabilities to conduct liquid biopsy testing in-house (in the form of LDTs). While RUO (research use only) kits may represent an attractive space for growth and revenue for diagnostic manufacturers, hospitals can leverage these RUO kits to improve familiarity and/or improvise their own LDTs.
At this time, diagnostic manufacturers and specialty labs are driving reimbursement initiatives, including public-private partnerships, test sponsorships, inclusion in treatment guidelines etc. but with healthcare providers taking ownership and driving more active participation in the development and refinement of liquid biopsy tests and access to these tests, the market may be able to unlock this potential more concertedly – not in the least by helping generate the RWE payers are increasingly focused on, and that help fill the data gaps that exist.
The opportunities for liquid biopsy are real, but realizing its true potential requires a focused corporate strategy for many key market players. By no means are the above activities a comprehensive list of ‘must dos’ for unlocking the value of this technology—based on decades of experience and dozens of clients, we’ve highlighted a few sample areas that major stakeholders in the liquid biopsy ecosystem can start investing in to unlock the potential that liquid biopsy holds.To learn more about KPMG Precision Medicine Insights database, visit our website.
Special thanks to: Puja Ghelani, Efe Alyanak, Sophie Kijel, Erik Landry, Emily McPhee, Ping Ngok
Precision Medicine | Navigating innovation in the new normal
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