SEOUL, Souh Korea, July 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lunit, a leading AI
startup in AI-powered cancer solutions, today announced a strategic
investment of $26 million from
Guardant Health, Inc. (Nasdaq: GH), a leading precision oncology
company.
The deal, which includes the investment made by Guardant Health
and also a groundbreaking collaboration between a liquid biopsy
company and a medical AI startup, is intended to help reshape and
innovate the precision oncology landscape.
Lunit has closed its Series C Tranche B funding round with the
investment from Guardant Health. Lunit is expected to file for an
initial public offering on the Korean Stock Exchange later this
year.
At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 annual
meeting, Lunit presented that its tissue analysis platform, Lunit
SCOPE, was able to find 50% more patients who would respond to
immunotherapy, compared to traditional diagnostic pathology.1 Lunit
has been presenting its findings at ASCO and American Association
for Cancer Research (AACR) since 2019.
"Artificial intelligence is rapidly gaining ground in cancer
research and it's exciting to see the excellent progress Lunit has
made in developing innovative AI-powered radiology and pathology
solutions that have the potential to significantly improve the
diagnoses and treatment of cancer," said Helmy Eltoukhy, Guardant Health CEO. "We're very
impressed with Lunit's approach and believe this investment will
help them advance their important AI work for eventual clinical
use. Through this investment, we also expect to utilize their AI
platform to usher in new precision oncology products that
contribute in a meaningful way to improving cancer care for
patients."
"We believe that AI in the field of medicine is an inevitable
future to come," said Brandon Suh,
M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Lunit. "As one of the early
starters and front-runners in this new and innovative field, we
have been validating the effectiveness of Lunit SCOPE through
various studies, and now we are pushing to show its value in
clinical research and real practice. We are more than delighted to
announce the investment and collaboration with Guardant Health.
With our AI technology in tissue phenomics and Guardant Health's
commitment to advancing our work, we are looking forward to making
impactful changes in cancer diagnosis and treatment."
About Lunit
Through AI, Lunit aims to make data-driven medicine the new
standard of care. Lunit is an AI software company devoted to
developing AI solutions for precision diagnostics and therapeutics,
to find the right diagnosis at the right cost, and the right
treatment for the right patients. We are especially focused on
conquering cancer, one of the leading causes of death
worldwide.
Founded in 2013, Lunit has been internationally acknowledged for
its advanced, state-of-the-art technology and its application in
medical images. Our technology has been recognized at international
AI competitions surpassing top companies like Google, IBM, and
Microsoft. As a medical AI company that values building clinical
evidence, our findings are presented in major peer-reviewed
journals and global conferences including ASCO and AACR. Lunit is
headquartered in Seoul, South
Korea with offices and representatives in the U.S.A., Netherlands, and China.
Reference
1. Hyojin Kim, Chan-Young Ock, et al. Clinical performance of
artificial intelligence-powered annotation of tumor cell PD-L1
expression for treatment of immune-checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) in
advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), ASCO 2021
Lunit Media Contact:
Yunyoung Noh
media@lunit.io
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SOURCE Lunit