BERTIS, a South Korean precision medicine company specializing in proteomics, announced on the 21st that it has begun supplying its early breast cancer detection blood test, MASTOCHECK®, in Thailand and the Philippines.

Sales and marketing of MASTOCHECK in these countries will be managed by LifeStrands, an innovative clinical genomics company headquartered in Singapore. BERTIS signed a supply agreement with LifeStrands on January 10.

LifeStrands specializes in clinical and translational genomics and offers a wide range of genomic testing services through its hospital networks across Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia.

MASTOCHECK, developed by BERTIS, is the world’s first proteomics-based blood test for early breast cancer detection. It determines the likelihood of breast cancer by analyzing the quantitative levels of three protein biomarkers related to breast cancer in the blood, using a patented algorithm. The test has demonstrated clinical effectiveness in detecting early-stage breast cancer (stages 0 to 2) and has been approved by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as an in vitro diagnostic medical device. It is currently used in over 500 medical institutions in Korea and has also been launched in Singapore.

Seungman Han, CEO of BERTIS, said, “We are pleased to introduce MASTOCHECK in partnership with LifeStrands, a highly influential player in Southeast Asia. With strong interest from local medical professionals and LifeStrands’ extensive network, we expect MASTOCHECK to quickly gain traction in the region.”

Asian women are more likely than Western women to have dense breast tissue, where the high density of glandular tissue compared to fat can make it harder to detect tumors through mammography. As a blood-based test, MASTOCHECK demonstrates high accuracy even in women with dense breasts. It also delivers consistent results without variation due to subjective interpretation and can be used in young women, women of reproductive age, and pregnant women.