Liquid biopsy developer Epic Sciences has brought on Myriad Genetics’ oncology chief, Lloyd Sanders, to be its new president and CEO.
Sanders takes over for Murali Prahalad—who is stepping down after six years to pursue new opportunities, according to the company—though Prahalad will maintain a seat on Epic’s board of directors.
"Under Murali's leadership, the Epic team has made substantial progress in advancing our proprietary Functional Cell Profiling platform and successfully launching and obtaining Medicare coverage for the world's first predictive test for metastatic prostate cancer," Epic’s chairman, Gregory Lucier, said in a statement.
At Myriad, Sanders helped oversee the cancer, urology and dermatology commercial units as president of its oncology segment. He was also responsible for the sales, marketing and lab operations of several molecular diagnostic products.
Before that, Sanders was the chief operating officer of Mylan’s Dey Pharma division, overseeing sales, marketing and medical affairs for brands including the EpiPen. He also served as COO of the cancer-focused biotech Genta.
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Last fall, Epic raised $52 million in a series E round to help advance its line of blood tests, which use computer vision and machine learning to identify circulating tumor cells, while characterizing the body’s immune responses. The platform aims to predict individual patients’ responses to different cancer therapies and combinations, as well as to detect early drug resistance.
With Sanders’ tenure, Epic hopes to make inroads to new markets, both domestically and internationally, including in breast cancer and immuno-oncology.
"By expanding the breadth and depth of Epic's portfolio of reimbursed products, and building our thriving biopharma solutions business that supports our pharmaceutical partners' development of next-generation immunotherapies and targeted cancer agents, we can play an important role in changing cancer from a lethal to a chronic, manageable disease," Sanders said.