Specialist
Executive at Natera Inc
Agenda
- Liquid biopsy market trends and competitive dynamics across key players, focusing on Thrive Earlier Detection, Guardant Health (NASDAQ: GH), Freenome and Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN)
- Impact of M&A activity from Illumina and Exact Sciences (NASDAQ: EXAS)
- Growth in cancer monitoring and screening
- Outlook for 2021 and beyond
Questions
1.
How have shifting liquid biopsy market dynamics in the biomarker and genetic testing landscape over the last 6-12 months?
2.
Can you assess Illumina’s recent reacquisition of Grail, including how being under the Illumina umbrella might impact Grail’s capabilities?
3.
You mentioned some considerations with Grail now being under the Illumina umbrella, including the cost and speed of work. What are your expectations for Grail’s Galleri test? Do you think the aim to make this clinically available by year end is feasible?
4.
Agilent announced its intent to acquire Resolution Biosciences a couple of days ago. Does this move to try to strengthen its diagnostic capabilities surprise you?
5.
We have covered Illumina’s Grail acquisition, but the other significant, related acquisition seems to be Exact’s Thrive acquisition. What do you think are the implications of this acquisition? What is your assessment of Exact’s strategy, particularly its end-to-end cancer testing pipeline? Exact has been active in smaller M&A since acquiring Thrive.
6.
Exact aims to become an end-to-end player and recently acquired a couple of capabilities, particularly in the MRD [minimal residual disease] segment. Where else could the company expand to work towards achieving that end-to-end positioning?
7.
Guardant seemed to have the broadest portfolio prior to all the M&A in H2 2020, with MRD, pan-cancer and treatment selection offerings. How do you expect the many industry changes to impact Guardant? How is the company positioned?
8.
What are your expectations for Guardant, particularly the need to bolster any of its offerings as well as its recently announced Guardant Reveal?
9.
You mentioned the potential for some players to expand or bring in tissue biopsy capabilities. How important do you think that is, particularly considering physician uptake or acceptance? Do you think that that would improve some of these players’ positioning?
10.
Can you discuss the attractiveness of CTC [circulating tumour cell] players vs exosome and cfDNA/ctDNA [cell-free DNA/circulating tumour DNA] players for strategic M&A?
11.
Which firms might be interested in expanding in or entering the liquid biopsy market? Can you assess the appetite for further M&A? You mentioned that Agilent might be aiming to bolster that offering as it aims to expand its diagnostic footprint.
12.
Which credible players are left that could be acquired by and might move the needle for players that might want to enter the market?
13.
Can you expand on ExosomeDx and its partnerships, data and approach?
14.
Are there any companies we have not covered that you think have unclear approaches or you are particularly impressed by? What do you expect to be the broader implications of these in the next year or so?
15.
How far do you think we are from MRD approvals that could move the needle? We know that the addressable market might be a little bit smaller than early detection oncology or treatment selection. What are your thoughts on this?
16.
What is your outlook for the liquid biopsy market? What are you looking forward to most and what questions do you think still need to be addressed – particularly around the supply chain and data – as this market continues to grow? You mentioned that a couple of players still need to report their data to allow us to fully assess their standing.
