Cancer Diagnostics Innovator KIYATEC Expands Services to Help Relieve COVID-19 Testing Bottleneck

KIYATEC, Inc., a clinical-stage leader in ex vivo 3D cell culture testing that supports cancer drug development and drug therapy decision-making, announced today that it is making high-throughput RNA extraction services available to clinical laboratories nationwide that are conducting COVID-19 testing. By creating additional capacity for RNA extraction, a critical component of the COVID-19 testing process, KIYATEC believes it will help testing laboratories normalize the processing and delivery of test results at a time of unprecedented testing demand and turnaround times.

Most coronavirus tests rely on RNA extraction as the first technical step; without it, the test cannot be performed. Nationwide shortages and backlogs in the reagents and kits most often used to perform these extractions have created bottlenecks and delays that have impacted COVID-19 testing volume and throughput, thereby prompting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve alternate testing processes under Emergency Use Authorization (EAU) status. With an already CLIA-certified and operational high complexity lab, KIYATEC is joining the fight against this pandemic by offering its RNA extraction services to COVID-19 testing laboratories.

While KIYATEC's core business in oncology continues to occupy much of its laboratory testing capacity, the company has elected to make up to 71,000 RNA extractions available over the next two months, effective immediately, on a fee-for-service basis to COVID-19 testing laboratories nationwide. At a time when COVID-19 testing volume and turnaround times are surging, KIYATEC's 24-hour turnaround time per RNA extraction could provide a cost-effective efficiency boost to laboratories performing these tests. Making RNA extraction services available to COVID-19 testing laboratories is consistent with KIYATEC's core goals of improving patient care and outcomes.

"Although KIYATEC traditionally serves the oncology community exclusively, we quickly determined that our existing technical infrastructure and capabilities in RNA extraction were ideally aligned to address this critical pressure point in the COVID-19 test process," said Matthew Gevaert, PhD, CEO of KIYATEC. "Following discussions with public health thought leaders and COVID-19 testing laboratories, we realized that offering RNA extraction services could provide immediate help to these laboratories in overcoming possible supply chain challenges and optimizing their volume and turnaround time potential."

About KIYATEC, Inc.

KIYATEC leverages its proprietary ex vivo 3D cell culture technology platforms to accurately model and predict response to approved and investigational cancer drugs targeting a spectrum of solid tumors. The company's Clinical Services business is currently engaged in the validation of clinical assays as well as investigator-initiated studies in ovarian cancer, breast cancer, glioblastoma and rare tumors, in its CLIA-certified laboratory. The company's Drug Development Services business works in partnership with leading biopharmaceutical companies to unlock response dynamics for their investigational drug candidates across the majority of solid tumor types.