Korea’s Lunit in AI-powered lung cancer diagnostics deal with AstraZeneca

Lunit Inc., a South Korean AI-powered cancer diagnostics company, has partnered with global biopharma giant AstraZeneca plc. to jointly enter the AI-powered lung cancer diagnostics market.

Ken Nesmith, Lunit's chief business officer, said in an interview with The Korea Economic Daily that the Korean firm has been picked as AstraZeneca’s sole partner for using AI technology to identify patients eligible for administration of Tagrisso, the biopharma's lung cancer medicine.

The partnership marks the first time a Korean medical AI firm has teamed up with a global pharmaceutical company to enter the AI-powered lung cancer diagnosis market.

On Monday, the two companies signed a formal strategic business cooperation agreement.

“In recent competitive bidding, Lunit was chosen as the sole AI biomarker partner for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Lunit’s partnership with an oncology leader like AZ is a testament to our cutting-edge AI technology,” said Nesmith.

Tagrisso is a treatment for NSCLC, a condition that accounts for 85% of lung cancer cases globally. About 700,000 lung cancer patients worldwide are using the drug.

AZ’S TAGRISSO

About half of NSCLC cases occur in patients with a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene. Tagrisso is effective for lung cancer patients with this mutation.

The key challenge lies in identifying patients with EGFR mutations before treatment. If Tagrisso is prescribed to patients without the mutation, it is ineffective, which leads to unnecessary medical expenses and delayed treatment opportunities for patients, officials of the companies said.

For this reason, the need to correctly diagnose patients with EGFR mutations has steadily risen, even among big pharmaceutical firms such as AZ, which ranked seventh globally with 64 trillion won ($48 billion) in revenue in 2023.

LUNIT’S AI BIOMARKER

Pharmaceutical companies have traditionally used a test method called next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect genetic mutations.

These tests, however, are costly and time-consuming.

AZ held a global bidding process to address this issue and picked Lunit as its partner, according to the Korean company.

Lunit said its EGFR mutation detection AI biomarker, Lunit SCOPE Genotype Predictor, analyzes digitized tissue slide images and delivers results within five minutes.

The speedy test results and accuracy were key to its deal with AZ, it said.

“Our AI technology enables rapid mutation predictions, allowing physicians to prioritize necessary NGS tests for eligible patients, enhancing efficiency. This also reduces cases of prescribing unsuitable drugs, a persistent issue in current medical practices,” said Nesmith.

Lunit and AZ are considering expanding their cooperation on the use of AI-powered diagnostics to detect other types of lung cancer.

Lunit Chief Executive Brandon Suh said in July the company will accelerate its push into developing markets grappling with inadequate cancer diagnostic technology and infrastructure.

In May, Lunit acquired Volpara Health Technologies Ltd., a New Zealand-based AI software developer, to broaden its presence in the breast cancer detection market.

Write to Jeong Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.