Reflections of the conference: Biomarker detection underpins advances in precision medicine
By Paul Meakin
Too few cancer patients across the world are receiving timely and appropriate medication because of the limited availability of companion diagnostics able to identify genetic factors to guide drug choice. This sobering message was reinforced by several speakers at the World Companion Diagnostics and Biomarkers Summit held in London in March 2026.
Marek Zurawski, Precision Medicine Lead EMEA with Johnson and Johnson was clear in his assessment that barriers to more effective patient care include limited roll-out of genetic testing equipment in European labs, compounded by a shortage of trained staff. Inevitable pressures around cost and uncertainty over the value of testing in terms of patient outcomes further constrain the deployment of advanced precision medicine.
Diagnosis of rare diseases is, however, looking more promising according to Professor Matthew Brown of Genomics England. Taking a multi-omics approach (genes, proteins, metabolism) there is now a far greater success rate in diagnosing rare conditions with monogenic causes, and the advance has been underpinned by the continuing fall in cost of genetic sequencing.
Precision medicine, defined in this context as the tailoring of therapeutic treatment in the knowledge of the genetic make-up of the patient, has become viable due to reducing costs of genetic sequencing allied to data capture and analytical technologies. Taken to its logical conclusion, everyone at birth could be genetically sequenced and this unique dataset becomes the property of the individual, available to clinicians in times of ill-health to guide treatments. While this approach may not be universally welcomed, it certainly is becoming a reality.
A very noticeable feature of the event was the predominance of US companies in the field. There is no doubt that companion diagnostics (CDx) is a challenging field for even mid-sized diagnostic companies where the requirements for partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies is essential. Bridging the methodological and communication hurdles between pharma and diagnostic companies must be achieved by players in this space. Diagnostic companies also must recognise that pharma companies operate at a global scale, encompassing several regulatory regimes, bringing challenges of timescale and capabilities to diagnostic developers. Partnerships can be made to work, as exemplified by Charlotte Herd of Abbvie, who stressed the need to develop diagnostics for global markets, and the importance of partnerships and risk sharing between the partners.
While the majority of the summit focussed on companion diagnostics in the form of genetic markers and circulating tumour (ctDNA), Kiri Granger, co-founder of Monument Therapeutics, presented a very different perspective. Monument Therapeutics is using digital biomarkers to assess the suitability of patients for treatment with a drug to reduce symptoms of schizophrenia. Analysis of well-characterised digital biomarkers provides an objective measure of brain processes, allowing prescription of drugs that target the biological basis of disease. Monument’s work shows that smaller companies can break into the CDx field based on solid understanding of the clinical condition and access to a portfolio of actives.
In recent years the UK has lost ground in the commercialisation of biomarkers and companion diagnostics to the global giants such as Roche, Foundation Medicine and Illumina. There are relatively few UK-based players in what will become an increasingly important segment of the diagnostics market. The summit did show that are realistic prospects for success in the UK, and CPI has launched an initiative to identify and support companies working in the field (Breaking Through Barriers in Next-Generation Cancer Diagnostics | CPI). There is no shortage of the technologies and innovations required for success in CDx in the UK, our collective challenge is to harness the resources for the betterment of patient care.