Specialist
Former VP at Exosome Diagnostics Inc
Agenda
- Key developments in the liquid biopsy market relating to Exosome Diagnostics (NASDAQ: TECH)
- Competitive landscape and Exosome's positioning
- Expectations for Exosome's growth and developments following its acquisition by Bio-Techne
- Outlook for 2021 and beyond
Questions
1.
What are your thoughts around developments in the liquid biopsy market since our last Interview [see Liquid Biopsy – Part 2 – Illumina's Grail & Exact's Thrive Acquisitions – 30 October 2020], given the level of M&A activity?
2.
Could you expand on your suggestion that there are advantages and disadvantages to a liquid biopsy provider having a decentralised model?
3.
A lot of players across the diagnostics and life sciences industries are interested in entering the liquid biopsy market, with players such as Agilent, NeoGenomics and Illumina entering the segment. What do you think will be the result of these different types of players having a liquid biopsy offering?
4.
It seems that there aren’t that many potential acquisition targets in the market that would significantly move the needle for a player such as Quest or Labcorp. What do you think could be their path forward? Have you noticed any potential acquisition targets?
5.
What are your thoughts around the bigger standalone liquid biopsy players such as Guardant and Exact Sciences? How successful do you expect them to be?
6.
Do you think achieving success for a standalone liquid biopsy player is about its portfolio or capabilities? Before a lot of the M&A occurred, Guardant seemed to have one of the broadest portfolios, doing a lot of the heavy lifting with the FDA. Do you think that will ultimately result in success?
7.
You mentioned considerations around RNA- vs DNA-based liquid biopsy products. What do you expect from Exosome Diagnostics’ approach vs what’s happening with CTC [circulating tumour cells], ctDNA [circulating tumour DNA] and cfDNA [circulating free DNA]?
8.
What are your thoughts on Exosome Diagnostics’ portfolio and positioning? Could you assess its market utility and its approach to assays?
9.
Do you think Bio-Techne is the right home for Exosome Diagnostics? What do you think the path forward will be for the company under that Bio-Techne umbrella?
10.
Could you outline Exosome Diagnostics’ portfolio and any considerations around that? You mentioned that EPI [ExoDx Prostate (IntelliScore)] hasn’t grown significantly since the acquisition, but that the company’s technology is pretty unique. Could you evaluate the assays and their market opportunity?
11.
What would you do if you were at the helm of Exosome Diagnostics? You mentioned bladder as a potential area for growth.
12.
What is Exosome Diagnostics’ potential across applications in a best-case scenario where it has a commercial leadership with experience in diagnostics? What is the likelihood of success in categories such as cancer screening, Alzheimer’s and transplant rejection?
13.
What do you think Exosome Diagnostics has done right or wrong in its partnership strategy? Bio-Techne and Qiagen announced in September 2020 the expansion and extension of a non-exclusive partnership working on exosome-based products. Any commentary here?
14.
What are your thoughts around Bio-Techne’s announcement of the acquisition of Asuragen earlier this month? What M&A activity do you expect from Bio-Techne or Exosome Diagnostics to materialise the strategy you mentioned?
15.
You mentioned that Bio-Techne needs to either divest Exosome Diagnostics or find a better strategy for it. Do its recent partnership extensions and acquisitions indicate that divestment would not be a path that Bio Techne would want to go down? If it were to divest, who do you think could be likely acquirer?
16.
You mentioned Labcorp and Quest as likely acquirers in liquid biopsy. In January 2020 [see Liquid Biopsy – Product Differentiation & M&A Activities – 28 January 2020], you mentioned Agilent was building the infrastructure that would logically lead to it acquiring into the liquid biopsy space. We have since seen that materialize with its acquisition of Resolution Bioscience. Have you noticed any other players laying a similar groundwork that would indicate they might be interested in acquiring soon?
17.
Are there any further considerations that could indicate the path forward for liquid biopsy? There’s been differing levels of utilisation depending on the type of assay. How else can liquid biopsy players drive utilisation?
18.
You mentioned a lot of companies aren’t necessarily talking to doctors about what information or what data they want to receive. Do you think any player in the pan-cancer segment is clarifying that commercial strategy particularly well? What do you expect to come from the acquisitions of Thrive and Grail?
19.
What do you think is important to highlight that we have not been able to discuss already
