IVD Companion Diagnostics

One of two flagship reference programs. Built on the Apollo Hospitals biobank, orchestrated through LabOS, and packaged for CDSCO + FDA bridging via ClinicalBridge. For the full pharma R&D lifecycle, see Pharma R&D.

The customer scenario

A pharma partner has a Phase 2 oncology drug — say, a targeted therapy in NSCLC or HER2-low breast cancer. To enter Phase 3 with a stratified label, they need a regulator-grade companion diagnostic (CDx) that predicts responders. Traditional path: outsource to Roche Dx or Thermo Fisher — 4–6 years, $30–50M, parallel to clinical development, and almost always FDA-optimized with CDSCO as an afterthought.

Program timeline

PhaseMonthsLabOS executionCost
Biomarker discovery 0–3 OmicsOS Hypothesis Agent over Apollo NSCLC cohort (scRNA + WGS + IHC) + literature. Ranked candidate biomarkers with uncertainty. $0.4M
Analytical validation 3–9 Design Agent emits typed DAGs; Execution Broker routes to Syngene (assay dev), MedGenome (NGS validation). Precision, accuracy, LoD/LoQ per CLSI EP05/EP17. $1.6M
Clinical validation 9–15 Retrospective Apollo cohort (consented, IRB-approved) + prospective sub-study. QC Agent enforces sample-quality gates. Provenance-signed graph for every datapoint. $2.5M
Regulatory submission 15–18 ClinicalBridge packages CDSCO IVD dossier + FDA pre-submission Q-Sub. Cross-agency bridging strategy. $0.5M
Total 18 months vs. 4–6 years traditional $5.0M vs. $30–50M

Regulatory pathway

CDSCO-first (India launch)

IVD dossier under New Medical Devices Rules 2017. Apollo investigator-initiated extension for clinical validation. Typical review 6–9 months post-submission.

FDA bridging (global label)

Q-Sub pre-submission leveraging Apollo retrospective cohort + analytical validation data. MiRXES/BioHelix path for APAC manufacturing if kit production scales. See Singapore BioHelix.

Revenue to us

  • $1.5M upfront sprint fee (LabOS + sample analysis + analytical validation)
  • $500K × 3 milestones (analytical lock, clinical lock, regulatory acceptance) = $1.5M
  • $5–10/test royalty on Dx kit sales (at peak 50K–200K tests/yr → $0.25–2M/yr recurring)
  • 5–10% royalty on the drug’s CDx-stratified clinical revenue (long-tail, decade+)
  • Apollo revenue share: 25–35% of kit royalty + Atlas licensing uplift

Why this works for the pharma buyer

  • 6× faster, 6–10× cheaper than the Roche Dx route
  • India-first regulatory path de-risks domestic launch; FDA bridging via Q-Sub strategy
  • Auditable provenance — every datapoint signed to its DAG; reviewer can replay
  • Apollo clinical credibility on the submission — investigator-initiated extension built in
  • Companion Dx ready for Phase 3 enrollment stratification, accelerating clinical timeline