Hong Kong-listed cancer screening start-up New Horizon Health to leverage AstraZeneca’s marketing muscle in China push
- ColoClear, the only such test approved in China, has a target market of 633 million people under the Chinese health authority’s screening recommendation
- Firm to launch ColoClear in the city by June With the help of Hong Kong-based partner Prenetics
ColoClear, the only such test approved in China, is expected to help reduce the incidence and mortality from the country’s third most-common type of cancer. AstraZeneca will promote the test in public hospitals and pharmacies as part of a three-year agreement signed on Monday.
“AstraZeneca is a very localised international company in China. Its over 4,000-strong digestive system sales team is unmatched by other companies,” Zhu Yeqing, New Horizon’s co-founder and chief executive, said in an interview on Tuesday. “They will also help open doors for us in overseas markets.”
Colorectal cancer is ranked third by incidence among all cancers in urban areas in China, with 440,000 newly diagnosed cases in 2019. Urban lifestyles, such as higher protein intake and less physical activity, are a key risk factor.
The pair will officially launch ColoClear in mainland China on April 10, and will focus on 300 to 400 target hospitals this year, with a plan to reach more than 4,000 hospitals in the long term, Zhu said. New Horizon plans to boost its sales staff by tenfold to more than 500 by year-end, he added.
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ColoClear, which has a target market of 633 million people under the Chinese health authority’s screening recommendation, was approved by the National Medical Products Administration last November based on results from a clinical trial on 5,881 people.
