Caris Life Sciences Receives Patent for Molecular Profiling Service in The People's Republic of China

-- Latest Award Further Demonstrates Company's Established International Intellectual Property Position

IRVING, Texas, Dec. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences^®, a leading biosciences company focused on fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine, has been granted a patent in The People's Republic of China covering its molecular profiling service, Caris Molecular Intelligence™, for cancer patients. China represents a large population of unmet medical need, with approximately 3.5 million people diagnosed with cancer each year, according to the nation's National Cancer Registry, and high mortality rates for those suffering from the disease (approximately 2.5 million people die of cancer annually in China).

This most recent granted patent comprises a robust, growing international patent portfolio for Caris in molecular diagnostics, which also includes granted patents covering tumor molecular profiling in Singapore and South Africa. The company's tumor profiling patent filings were among some of the earliest in cancer personalized diagnostics, dating back to 2006. In fact, Caris has one of the first issued patents for individualized treatment selection for cancer. 

"The purpose of patents is to spur and reward innovation, which in the molecular diagnostics industry in particular, drives continual improvement to help patients realize better treatment outcomes," said David D. Halbert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Caris Life Sciences. "Through our strong, global patent portfolio, Caris remains committed to our role as industry-leading innovators in personalized medicine."

In total, the company's entire patent portfolio for assessing cancer currently includes 27 domestic and international awards for both Molecular Intelligence™ and Carisome™, the company's in-development blood-based diagnostic platform. In addition to these issued patents, Caris currently has more than 170 additional patent applications filed and pending across the world.

About Caris Molecular Intelligence™

Caris Molecular Intelligence™ has been the leading cancer profiling service on the market since 2006, having been used for more than 50,000 cancer patients and counting by more than 6,000 oncologists in at least 58 countries to help develop individualized and actionable treatment plans to improve patient care.  Caris Molecular Intelligence™ utilizes the most comprehensive range of analytical technologies endorsed by the latest and most robust evidence — immunohistochemistries, fluorescence and chromogenic in situ hybridization, polymerase chain reaction and Next-Generation sequencing – to provide oncologists the most complete and clinically relevant profile of a patient's unique cancer-related biomarkers. Unlike other commercially available tumor profiling services, Caris Molecular Intelligence™ more completely interrogates a patient's unique tumor biology by going beyond just DNA analysis. The service assesses additional important biological components like RNA and protein expression levels to establish a multi-dimensional profile of a patient's tumor that reveals more fully the complex biological processes driving that patient's cancer and, therefore, more, relevant targets for potential clinical action. 

With a multi-dimensional profile of a patient's unique tumor, Caris Molecular Intelligence integrates insights from its proprietary and industry-leading evidence curation and bioinformatics platform to identify and report the most clinically relevant associations to drug therapies that are approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration or are in active clinical trials in the U.S. Managed by the Caris Evidence Design Board, a dedicated team of oncology experts that includes 5 Ph.D.s and 6 M.D.s, the Caris Molecular Intelligence evidence and bioinformatics platform curates, classifies and catalogues the findings and evidence from all relevant clinical studies in cancer and cancer biology available in the published scientific and medical literature, using a methodology adapted from the evidence review process of U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org) of the Agency for Health Research and Quality (www.ahrq.gov).  This platform incorporates the review of more than 100,000 publications and counting.  Relying on the most robust evidence that meets Caris' quality standards, the Caris Molecular Intelligence evidence and bioinformatics platform can currently provide therapeutic guidance for up to 43 drug associations with Caris' multi-dimensional approach to tumor profiling, far exceeding the 12 that can be identified using next-generation sequencing alone.  This platform electronically delivers the profile and results in an easy-to-use report format that gives oncologists access to underlying evidence, enabling them to develop tailored treatment plans for each unique patient. For more information on Caris Molecular Intelligence™, visit www.carismolecularintelligence.com.

About Caris Life Sciences

Caris Life Sciences is a leading biosciences company focused on fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine.  As the first commercial mover in comprehensive molecular profiling in oncology, Caris Molecular Intelligence™ is an industry vanguard, with 50,000-plus patients profiled and counting. Ordered by nearly 6,000 oncologists in 58 countries, Molecular Intelligence correlates molecular data generated from a patient's tumor with biomarker/drug associations derived from clinical cancer literature. Using a variety of advanced and clinically-relevant technologies, Caris provides oncologists with the most clinically actionable information to help them personalize treatment for cancer patients. This multi-technology approach enables Caris to provide therapeutic guidance for 43 drug associations, compared to the 12 that can be found through use of next-generation sequencing alone. The company is also developing a series of blood tests based on its proprietary Carisome® platform — a revolutionary blood-based testing technology for diagnosis, prognosis, and theranosis of cancer and other complex diseases. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.carislifesciences.com.