Lunit launches AI-based pathology analysis solution with US firm

South Korea's medical imaging startup Lunit said on Wednesday that it has launched Guardant360 TissueNext, an AI-based pathology analysis solution developed in collaboration with America's precision oncology company Guardant Health, in the global market.

As a result, Guardant360 will be sold to countries around the world, including the United States, centered on new drug companies developing immuno-oncology drugs.

Guardant360 is a device that helps predict the treatment response of anticancer drugs, based on the AI technology of Lunit SCOPE PD-L1, Lunit's pathology analysis solution.

PD-L1 is a protein found on the surface of cancer cells. It is an important biomarker to detect the presence of cancer because there is a difference in the treatment response of immuno-anticancer drugs depending on the level of its expression.

Lunit said that when Guardant360 was applied to non-small cell lung cancer patients, the PD-L1 detection rate improved by more than 20%, indicating that the device found additional patients who responded to anticancer drugs.

Lunit and Guardant Health entered into an exclusive partnership in 2021 to utilize Lunit SCOPE in the process of developing the device. Guardant360 is the first outcome of the collaboration between the two companies.

"Given Guardant Health has secured a large-scale distribution and sales channel in the US, we will aggressively target the US market and beyond by strengthening our partnership," said Suh Beom-seok, CEO of Lunit.

Write to Jae-Young Han at jyhan@hankyung.com