Addressing unmet health needs through precision diagnostics with Lucence's Dr. Tan Min-Han
Episode show notes and transcript
About The Guest
Dr. Tan Min-Han is the founder, CEO, and medical director of Lucence, a precision medicine company specializing in noninvasive early detection of multiple cancers. With a background as a medical oncologist and clinical cancer geneticist, Dr. Tan has dedicated his career to addressing the needs of cancer patients and advancing precision health. He has led Lucence in expanding its operations to Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong, and China, and has secured Medicare coverage for the company's tests, making Lucence the first Asian healthcare company to receive such approval.
📄 Summary
Dr. Tan Min-Han, founder and CEO of Lucence, joins the podcast to discuss the importance of precision health in Singapore and the region. He shares his journey from being a medical oncologist and researcher to becoming an entrepreneur focused on noninvasive early detection of cancer through liquid biopsies. In this episode, he emphasizes the urgent need for early cancer detection, as 80% of cancer deaths are from unscreened cancers. Listen as he highlights the challenges of implementing change in healthcare systems and the importance of engaging stakeholders to address these gaps. Finally, he also discusses Lucence's expansion to the United States and China, as well as the company's mission to bridge the gap in cancer detection worldwide.
🥡 Key Takeaways
Lucence focuses on noninvasive early detection of multiple cancers through liquid biopsies.
80% of cancer deaths are from unscreened cancers, highlighting the urgent need for early detection.
Lucence aims to bridge the gap in cancer detection and save lives through accessible and accurate blood testing.
The company has secured Medicare coverage in the United States, making it the first Asian healthcare company to receive such approval.
Lucence has already expanded its operations to Hong Kong, China, and is looking to expand to other regions to address the global need for early cancer detection.
💬 Quotes
"The early detection of cancers is so important because 80% of cancer deaths today are from unscreened cancers."
"The earlier detection of multiple cancers through blood testing is going to help bridge a gap to sustain and detect cancer earlier, to prolong life, to save lives from earlier detection."
"Health is really the goal of medical breakthroughs, not just medicine, not just treatments."
"Change is very hard in a system. There are so many stakeholders and payers, which include insurance companies, which include governments… So the product development, it's straightforward, right? What is hard is implementing change."
"Cancer's needs are universal, and so we are determined to engage and overcome these regulatory needs everywhere."
"In the United States, for example, we are very glad that our technology is now accessible to American patients and that the U.S. government essentially supports the use of our tests for cancer patients through the Medicare system. We don't have in Southeast Asia an equivalent mechanism where the patients can benefit from our tests. From a public point of view, I think this is a challenge and a problem."
⏱️ Timestamp
00:39 - Introduction
06:12 - Lucence's value proposition in the cancer diagnostics market
11:59 - Formation of Lucence's team and its evolution
23:06 - Challenges in implementing change in healthcare systems
28:39 - Key pillars of support and models for entrepreneurship advice
33:15 - Difficulties for Asian healthcare services in securing US approval
36:34 - Lucence's future expansion and impact in the world
40:13 - Evolution of the life science ecosystem in Singapore
🎙️ Transcript
Episode Preview
Dr. Tan Min-Han: In the United States, for example, we are very glad that, you know, our technology is now accessible to American patients and that the U.S. government, you know, essentially supports the use of our tests for cancer patients through the Medicare system. We don't have, in Southeast Asia, an equivalent mechanism where the patients can benefit from our tests from a public point of view.
I think this is a challenge and a problem.
Introduction
Joson Ng: Hi, thanks for joining us on Nuclear Singapore Pulse, Singapore's premier podcast on the biotech ecosystem. I'm your host, Joson Ng, an MD-PhD candidate at Duke-NUS Medical School.
Whether you're a student thinking about creating your own startup or an industry professional looking for diverse perspectives, this is the podcast for you.
The show notes and transcripts for the episode can be found on nucleatesingapore.substack.com. Joining us today is Dr. Tan Min-Han, founder, CEO, and medical director of Lucence. Dr. Tan, do you mind giving our listeners a quick introduction of yourself?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Hello, Joson. Thank you for the invitation to join you on the podcast.
My name is Han. I'm the founder and CEO of Lucence in my past life, I was trained as a medical oncologist and clinical cancer geneticist. I used to lead a scientific research group in A*STAR, which is Singapore's leading research, multidisciplinary research Institute. For the last six years, I've been growing a company, a precision medicine company with twin laboratories, one in Singapore and the other in the Silicon Valley.
So yeah, very happy to join today's podcast to talk about how I believe precision health is really going to play an important part for Singapore and the region.
Joson Ng: Awesome. Thank you so much, Dr. Tan. And thank you for taking the time to join us today. So perhaps we could do this chronologically. You mentioned that you were a medical oncologist in NCCS, as well as a principal investigator in A*STAR in 2011.
And then on 2016, you went on to found Lucence, right? So what was the impetus for you to embark on your entrepreneurship journey?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: It's true that in my career, I have been a scientist, a doctor, and in the last few years, an entrepreneur. The common thread here has always been about seeking answers to solve needs and as a physician, I think we see many needs from our cancer patients. As a scientist, we can have the opportunity to understand the underlying mechanisms of disease, but as an entrepreneur, I find it extremely satisfying that we can focus on addressing the needs of people in a very focused way and nuisance does that through noninvasive early detection of multiple cancers. The early detection of cancers is so important because 80% of cancer deaths today are from unscreened cancers. The availability of noninvasive early screening has the potential to slash deaths, and I think I'm very privileged to play a role in that, combining both an understanding of the needs, the technology development required for blood testing, and you know, the commercial journey that allows those needs to be addressed for so many millions of people out there suffering from cancer.
So yeah, it's really been an exciting period combining, you know, these three facets of my career.
Joson Ng: Speaking of seeking answers to solve needs, one of the things that the government is really trying to address is the aging population and how we can address that. And we are now living in a world where we have a lot of enhanced capabilities like being able to rapidly sequence the genome of huge populations.
And one of the things that the government is doing right now is promoting precision medicine and the SG100K project. So what are your thoughts on that and how do you think that impacts health, medicine, and cancer diagnostics?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Yeah, so Joson, I think this is a really important question because the world is facing an aging tsunami, right?
And, you know, nowhere more so than in Asia where many countries are moving into the super aged. Certainly, extending health span, which is the period of time people remain active and healthy, is on the top of everyone's mind. And aging is really the key risk factor behind so many problems that keep us from our potential, which include cancer, heart attack, metabolic diseases, and dementia.
Understanding these major barriers to health span, these four major barriers, is necessary so that each of us can live a healthy, productive and happy life. And I think the research projects that the regional governments are pursuing, that's great to understand this. Where I would say is that industry and academia have collaborated to come together with many opportunities and technologies to make that healthspan journey easier for patients today and it's really all going to be about implementation of how do we ensure that the largest number of people benefit from access to these breakthroughs that allow people to live better and longer. So I, I want to emphasize that health is really the goal of medical breakthroughs, not just medicine, not just treatments.
We really want to intervene earlier in the whole aging journey so that people preserve function, maximize health, and make use of the best possible evidence to inform these recommendations, that both research, industry, academia, everything is going to be important in that implementation.
Lucence's value proposition in the cancer diagnostics market
Joson Ng: You mentioned earlier that that's sort of like the angle that Lucence is also trying to go into.
So how do you envision Lucence's value proposition and how do you think Lucence stands out among its competitors in the global blood or cancer diagnostics market?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Absolutely. So Lucence focuses on liquid biopsies, which are essentially noninvasive blood tests that detect cancer earlier. These tests can be used in many applications, such as the earlier detection of multiple cancers, or the sparing of patients from invasive and painful procedures that are required to obtain tissue.
And maybe here we are talking about two major needs that people have in the cancer treatment journey. I will begin by saying that blood tests are critical part of enabling patients a earlier detection of cancer, because as mentioned just now, eight out of 10 cancers, eight out of 10 cancer deaths are from unscreened cancers, such as liver, pancreas, nasopharyngeal cancers, and several of these cancers are common in Asia, have an Asian background, which accounts for 60% of the world's population.
And so if eight out of 10 deaths are from these unscreened cancers, right? And per year, annually, there are 10 million deaths from cancer. What we are seeing is truly an epidemic of cancer deaths from cancers that are not detected earlier, and this becomes an incredibly urgent need to intervene and to solve this problem. At the same time, traditional screening, such as that for mammograms or colonoscopies for cervical pap smears, I think compliance in some Asian societies is between three to 17%.
There is no purpose, no benefit to having a test that no one benefits from. It's essentially a futile use of resources to promote tests if you know the population is not benefiting. And so where Lucence positions this is that the earlier detection of multiple cancers through blood testing Is going to help bridge a gap to sustain and detect cancer earlier to prolong life to save lives from earlier detection, because it is always going to be easier to cure a two centimeter tumor than a five centimeter tumor.
So multi cancer early detection, blood testing for the population, unscreened cancers available, accessible. This is really the vision of the company across the world. So I think that's, that's the passion that infuses the work because, you know, I've seen late stage cancer patients, right? And I see the many patients with late stage are essentially incurable and go through a lot of futile treatments.
You know, even in this era of targeted therapies, a lot of outcomes in terms of drug resistance, these consume a lot of national and private and family resources in money and time. It's extremely painful, right? But that's also where the system is pouring a lot of efforts into , because no one doubts that when there is a cancer diagnosed, there is the national health insurance, there are doctors who are able to come together to provide drugs, radiation, but wouldn't it be something important for us to be putting efforts into, you know, intervening earlier with earlier detection, right?
So I think that's the problem that, you know, Lucence has chosen and is trying to solve today.
Joson Ng: That's extremely inspiring, Dr. Tan. As someone who's really interested in cancer, I also recognize that earlier diagnoses usually help patients by a huge margin and improves their outcomes by quite a lot. As I understand it, Dr. Tan, a lot of what Lucence offers right now actually took off from your research work and Lucence actually started about five years after you started as a PI in A*STAR. So, who were your first supporters when you first thought of spinning off your work as a startup from A*STAR?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: So as in all things, it always takes a village.
I always appreciate the help of A*STAR in the initial spin out of the technology from my academic laboratory. It's really important to recognize that this could have only happened with the support of the public health system, I had collaborations with the, National University Hospital, with, National Cancer Center, and very importantly, we must highlight the critical role of the private sector in enabling the utilization of such technology, because it is very normal that innovative products are deployed first where patients can make use of them.
So I think really it does take a village. The growth of this certainly occurred both in the public and private sectors of Singapore and then progressively the region. And at the heart companies succeed when they are able to solve the needs of people all around the world. And that's what, you know, our journey over the last six years has been, which is starting from Singapore and then to the region, especially Hong Kong and thereafter to the United States, where we have secured, we are the first and only Asian headquartered company to have secured, United States national healthcare insurance coverage. That's called Medicare.
Formation of Lucence's team and its evolution
Joson Ng: Congratulations on that, by the way. I understand that it was only this year that Lucence secured Medicare approval. And I think Lucence is also the first Asian healthcare company to secure Medicare funding.
I definitely want to get to that in a bit, but I also wanted to know about how you first formed your team. So a lot of biotech startups, especially those that come from academia or from a more sort of research intensive background, they usually pair up business minded people together with science minded people.
So how do you go about sort of forming your first team and how does the team and individual member functions change over time, especially as Lucence evolved?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: The team is a critical part of a company, right? The people drive the spirit and the culture of the company. And I was fortunate enough to actually have two co-founders, Yukti, Dr. Yukti, who was my chief technology officer, Dr. Zhao Pan, who was my chief commercial officer. So I think the three of us were the initial seed group of individuals that powered the initial growth of the company. So at that point, you know, if we were a small team with the passion to bring liquid biopsies to the world, and you know, I have so much to thank the team over the years for, and the ability to solve the needs of people, of course, people progressively recognize that value. People who are passionate about the growth of precision medicine.
And in fact, even in this podcast, right. And I hope to bring the message that precision health is a critical part of Asian healthcare and it is a rising tide. And you know, I'm very, very glad to be able to evangelize that message here. I would love to talk to people who are keen on promoting precision health, particularly in cancer care.
And this is really about the right people hearing the right message and you know, at the right time, because everyone is passionate about making change in the world around us. It's just having the opportunity to engage with the right team at the right time, and this is really a progressive engagement over the years that I've always pursued. It's not just about, of course, the customers who are very important, but it's also about engagement with the team and people who might be interested in joining the team to make a difference through precision health.
Joson Ng: Dr. Tan, as your company evolved and started scaling up, and now you've expanded, as you mentioned, to Hong Kong, to China, as well as to the U.S., to Silicon Valley. With a company that has scaled up as rapidly as yours, what are your strategies for recruiting and developing human capital and how have your hiring considerations changed since you first started in Singapore?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: That's a great question about team building and it's critical, of course, to have a diverse team with a broad range of skill sets.
I think that's at the core. Along the way, I certainly value the ability to work across a broad range of flexibility in terms of capabilities. But really the core is that someone must be passionate about precision health. I think it's very hard to do healthcare without that innate passion about, of making a difference to people around us.
It's because healthcare really isn't. about a job where we go to work and we go home. Healthcare is something where we see that tangible impact. That our existence brings to the patients around us. And so we certainly hire for skills, but having that heart for the work in healthcare is really, really important.
And that's, that's something we specifically look out for because impact on this world, isn't just about research in a lab, you know, even whether one is working behind a bench in front of, behind a computer out there, with our customers or, just putting accounts, I'm glad that I think everyone in the team believes that precision health is how the world will be better taken care of, and that we are in the frontline of this change.
Change is not something obvious typically, because when we started a company, liquid biopsies were not fully recognized by the larger academic community. And so the type of people who form these team must have not only that those skills, the passion, but the ability to recognize that change begins from oneself and the ability to bring that message to the world is really important and something I continue to look out for all the time.
Joson Ng: I think that absolutely makes sense. I think qualified, competent people, they are a dime a dozen. There are so many out there, but like having the correct mindset and sort of the heart to strive for impact. I think that's a lot rarer. And I think having people like that would definitely benefit a team.
Speaking of creating impact, in 2020, you did give a talk at SG innovate. with Rachel Sim, who was at that time still finishing up her PhD in chemical biology in Oxford. I think Lucence co-developed a saliva RNA COVID test kit called SAFER together with her. And I think she kind of took out time from her PhD as well to help develop this.
Am I right?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Yeah. So the background story is Rachel worked with myself when we were in A*STAR together to develop a saliva test for the Zika virus. Right? And at that time, Zika virus was a bit of a global health concern. Come 2020, it was very fortunate that we had the technology ready for noninvasive saliva testing for COVID-19.
Now, over the next year we were able to collaborate with the National University of Singapore and of course the various government institutes to show that the saliva testing was about 50% more accurate as compared to nasopharyngeal swabbing for COVID-19. So I think this was something we are very excited about to have a noninvasive, convenient, very accessible test that was 50% more accurate than the gold standard nasopharyngeal testing. So I think Rachel was absolutely critical in the formative, you know, inventive period as an inventor of this technology. It's something I remember very deep, a really deep experience. And I'm so glad that we were able to contribute in so many ways. Not only did we deploy this test, we also were able to donate this to several countries, both in the region and in underdeveloped parts of the world.
Joson Ng: I think it's really encouraging, especially in Singapore. We think of ourselves as a small country, but we're developing all these capabilities and we're able to come up with our test kits. And as you mentioned, to develop a kit that is comparable or even better than the gold standard, I think that's a underrated achievement for sure.
I wanted to circle back into the idea of scaling up and developing as a company and you started off as a clinician and then you went to research and now you're in entrepreneurship. So you were kind of a leader, but wearing three different hats, right? In medicine and research and now in entrepreneurship.
How different are those leadership experiences, especially now as a CEO of Lucence?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: It really is about the team building process. As a clinician, we have a group of individuals that of course work together to deliver fantastic clinical service, you know, across the patient journey. That vision may not necessarily include other extremely critical parts of an organization such as finance.
Right. And similarly in research, we tend to focus very much on answering a single scientific problem. And perhaps we engage a little less with the corporate functions of a research institute. In entrepreneurship, the great thing is that this is extremely centered on the patient. And we ask, what is the team required to solve the needs of the patient from an end to end basis to promote health and to improve early detection. And that's definitely going to include not only the laboratory that provides the test, it includes the courier that picks up the sample so that the lab can process it. It includes, of course, the communications professionals that need to inform and increase awareness that such technology exists because you know, that, that awareness doesn't happen just overnight. And so this is really about solving these multiple parts of the problem needed to solve a need. And so if I were to say the core difference really is that it is a very holistic process running a company to solve the needs of someone.
I would say, right, I see the clinical service as critically important because that's the core of what we do to help patients directly. The research is the fundamental of how the clinician succeeds. At the heart, industry is where the needs of a patient are solved whether through devices, drugs, you know, or decisions powered by diagnostics.
And if we look around us, I think we can say many of our needs today are solved by industry working together, of course, with government, as well as with many other stakeholders.
Joson Ng: Perhaps just to drill down on that a little bit uh deeper, how similar or different do you think is grant writing to pitching to investors or VCs for funding?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: That's a, you know, that's a great question and something I've reflected on. We have to look at the audience and of course the people pitching and both are competitive processes because there are always a limited pot of funds, whether for research grants or for investment. I think there are many similarities, but perhaps then I will focus on, I think the differences.
I would say that the research grant process obviously has a, a much slower and a much more predictable timing because of, you know, grant windows. The assessment is certainly a peer review assessment, whereas investor funding is really, well, speaking as an investor, will I choose this as the company to support in solving the problem?
It's not a peer review process in any way. And so that relationship, it's going to be very different as compared to a grant funding process.
Challenges in implementing change in healthcare systems
Joson Ng: What has been the most challenging time or experience so far in establishing Lucence both locally as well as overseas?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: As a company, we always have our fair shares of ups and downs. I think communicating the importance of early cancer detection, getting this implemented, getting people aligned as to the importance of early cancer detection. All this is critical, but not always easy for, for people to understand because the healthcare system and, or perhaps I should call it the medical care system today is extremely invested in a process that enables, you know, great devices and great drugs, but perhaps health, health is not something which is straightforward for the medical system to address, to highlight that the patient journey over decades is something that we see many problems build up over time.
You know, whether these be cancers, whether they be acquired mutations, and we can feel it all around us that we feel certain physical deterioration, these things don't happen overnight. Choosing the right times to intervene, encouraging the stakeholders, you know, whether these be doctors, governments, pharmaceutical companies, I find this challenging because change is very hard in a system.
There are so many stakeholders and payers, which include insurance companies, which include governments, the demands of these payers are also an important part of the system. So the product development, it's straightforward, right? What is hard is implementing change. This is what I find an important part of industry because the change and how industry solves those needs is something that, you know, typically industry executes, but it's really a multi stakeholder process and, and coordinating these in different countries.
So I want to first say in the United States, for example, we are very glad that, you know, technology is now accessible to American patients and that the U.S. government, you know, essentially supports the use of our tests for cancer patients through the Medicare system. We don't have, in Southeast Asia, an equivalent mechanism where the patients can benefit from our tests, from a public point of view, I think this is a challenge and a problem.
And so I, I would just phrase this, that we see problems in different healthcare systems. I think this is normal for any company operating across different healthcare systems. I do think that investment in health is critical.
Certainly, we want to play our role in encouraging that awareness. But the system, these multi stakeholder systems, the payers, you know, these are also people, and that engagement does take time. And we are very optimistic that payers will see the value of early cancer detection. And, you know, better outcomes in terms of cancer treatments as a company, our responsibility is to educate all these stakeholders.
Joson Ng: When you spoke about change, there are all these different moving parts, as you mentioned, different stakeholders. How do you go about measuring that change? And how do you know that change has happened?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: The best way to describe needs is always to begin with what are the gaps that need to be bridged. And beginning from cancer, the fact that there are 10 million deaths a year, you know, eight out of 10 of which are from cancers that are unscreened outside the traditional screening.
I think that's a clear gap. And communicating this gap and the urgency of this gap is critical because when we looked at a recent event where change was very quick, and that was essentially COVID-19, which saw 5 million deaths in one year, we saw that whole drive of society towards the developing and getting a drug approved in an incredibly quick time.
My question today, looking at it is, we should be bringing that same urgency to the 10 million deaths every year, eight out of 10, of which are from unscreened cancers. How do we bring together the stakeholders to agree this is a problem. And I think highlighting these gaps, you know, all the time are important because without understanding a gap, we don't feel the urgency to solve it.
And I would say this is true, not only of cancer, but of aging and intervening. Making sure that we are not only doing research, but making sure that it's followed up by a clear plan for implementation. I think this is so important to have an evidence informed process that whatever we are doing for research needs to be clearly tied to an outcome where we choose or not to implement change.
Right? So I think this is where if there was a gap in the healthcare systems in the world, it's really to better connect the efforts of research to practical implementation done with some sense of urgency.
Joson Ng: Absolutely. And I think all the stakeholders really need to be in constant communication and engaging each other to make sure that these changes are being implemented, as you mentioned.
Key pillars of support and models for entrepreneurship advice
Joson Ng: Dr. Tan, maybe to circle back to how you started off with Lucence. You started off at a time that it wasn't really a trend yet to spin off a company. And so when you started off, were there any key pillars of support that you look towards or models that you looked up to for entrepreneurship advice?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Sure. It's a great question here. I've really benefited from having so many people around me who have provided guidance and certainly I really have to appreciate our investors, many of whom are very seasoned businessmen in the growth process. Offhand, I will say they really gave me the guidance required to take the company from where we were at the seed to where we are today and I'll name, you know, Mr. Lim Kaling, Mr. Koh Boon Hwee who have been instrumental investors in our company taking us forward.
And I would also say my brother is a very experienced, very, very, very passionate entrepreneur in the field of gaming, Mr. Tan Min-Liang, who is the co-founder and the CEO of Razer. And I always look at it this way. It's such a wonderful thing that he's taking care of happiness and I'm taking care of health.
Joson Ng: That's an interesting way to put it. Do you and your brother ever sort of swap entrepreneurship advice or insight with each other, given that you're coming from very different fields, right?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Yeah, I mean, my brother Min-Liang is incredibly experienced and I benefit a lot from his insights on, you know, business and society for sure.
We all have our strengths in the various domains, whether it be health or whether it be entertainment. And I think there are some commonalities, but it's always about people. It's always about the resources and it's about the needs. At the heart, everything in industry, every company, there is only one core question, which is how are we solving the needs of people. That's really the difference between a company and many other organizations.
Difficulties for Asian healthcare services in securing US approval
Joson Ng: So Dr. Tan, you started in 2016 with Lucence and within one year, you were able to get seed funding. And then in 2019, you already applied for a license and accreditation in Silicon Valley in Palo Alto in California. What were your considerations for expanding very early overseas and why did you go with the U.S. or specifically even Silicon Valley?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: I think the demands for incredibly accurate blood testing, they're not limited to Asia. Both the United States patients can certainly benefit from technology such as what we have and it's really about a global vision, bringing our technology to solve the needs of people, not only in Asia, but the United States, because there are a lot of needs, even in the United States where 64% of patients with lung cancer don't actually get the drug that they would have benefited from.
And this is just, it's an incredible figure that a lot of these patients don't get the drug they benefit from simply because the right decisions are not made to inform the drug selection. And this is where it really comes, what really motivates me in diagnostics is, it's not about the medical care. It's really about the decisions needed to inform better health so that you're avoiding the futile side effects. You are making the right decisions. And in the U.S. There is a very structured process as mentioned earlier, the U.S. Government does support, you know, the use of our technology for all American patients, age 65 and up. We can only hope that as we continue to grow this throughout the world that all the healthcare systems will be able to acknowledge the importance of earlier cancer detection of such blood testing for their patients.
But really Medicare is the key breakthrough for many payers because it's very, very robust. It's not just a regulatory approval. It's literally a recognition that this is beneficial for our patients and we are paying for it. This is absolutely the key point and it will take a while, but I see that as that message as, you know, disseminating throughout the world.
People do take a lot of guidance from what the U.S. government processes.
Joson Ng: I just want to emphasize that the green light from Medicare actually marks the first time that an Asian health care service provider has secured U.S. national insurance approval. And it really opens a lot of doors for Lucence in the U.S. So, what I wanted to know is... Why was this difficult before for other Asian health care services? Were there just not a lot of them trying to break into the U.S. market? And how did Lucence sort of step up and try to secure that Medicare approval?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Yeah, so it's a great question. I certainly hear that quite a fair bit in terms of there's a lot of curiosity, right?
How did we step up to participate in the U.S. healthcare system. I think the first thing really is that the moment we believe that we have technology that the American healthcare system can benefit from. I think it's firstly a clear decision that this is a system that recognizes value in a very structured way.
I think that's key. We have strong conviction that our American patients, there is a gap, that patients there can benefit from liquid biopsies such as what we do, which is a combined DNA RNA test. And it takes investment. It takes support from one's investors to make that happen. So I think this is something very exciting where we have created world leading technology, a unique technology, which the American patients are benefiting from.
Historically there was Toyota and cars, where Toyota started entering the United States with high quality affordable cars. We have Uniqlo and clothes, which are also high quality and affordable and doing extremely well in the United States. We are looking at a trend where it's about extremely high quality medical technology, such as what we have, which can help solve the gaps for American patients. And which we hope will continue to grow in Singapore and Asia.
Joson Ng: We definitely see that happening already. As mentioned earlier on, Lucence also has now branches in Hong Kong as well as in China. How is it like navigating all those different systems in terms of the accreditation, licensing, regulatory, among other things?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Each system does have its own unique approaches, and I think definitely healthcare systems that are open to services, healthcare services, extremely well supported, accredited services like ours, these will benefit from access. So, to give examples, I think Hong Kong, Taiwan, these certainly have very clear paths to the availability of very high quality technology, and that includes Singapore.
So, overall, such healthcare systems and their patients will benefit first from tests like ours, and it's really a process of individual engagement. Systems that tend not to allow for samples to be sent out of that system, those will certainly be slower in terms of technology adoption. And that's okay because, you know, we want to spend that time engaging the regulators and convincing them.
But at the heart, and I always go back to this, a company's mission is about solving needs. Cancer's needs are universal, and so we are determined to engage and overcome these regulatory needs everywhere.
Lucence's future expansion and impact in the world
Joson Ng: Starting from the little red dot that is Singapore, I think Lucence has created quite a huge impact in the world now that you have branches in the U.S. and in China as well. Where is Lucence headed in the future?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: I think that's a great question in that we have always had a global vision in what we do because cancer certainly isn't restricted to one country or one geographic zone.
The fight against cancer is universal. Everyone can get behind that, no matter one's background. We have always developed great technology for both the Asian and the American markets. We will continue that. We do have our work to recognize the importance of diversity. I think we have announced collaborations with Ghana to help solve the needs of Africa as well.
At the heart, you know, multi cancer early detection, I believe that's going to start in Asia and the United States, and we want that to continue to grow. This is something which I think slashing cancer deaths by 50% over the next three decades, we can play an important role in that.
Joson Ng: I think that sounds super exciting and it shows how Singapore is really punching above its weight in the global market.
And as you mentioned, since its founding, Lucence is already growing from strength to strength. Now, even trying to reach out to address the needs in Africa as well. Perhaps taking a step back. In terms of your experience in running a successful startup like Lucence, do you have any advice for any up and coming biotech founders from Singapore?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Everyone comes from different backgrounds and is trying to solve different needs. I guess at the core, it's really about engaging as many people as possible in the space. And I will say that some of the most instrumental advances in the company came because of generous sharing from people and competitors, even. It is really a ecosystem where sharing allows for the system to benefit as a whole and because global needs are so huge in healthcare, I think sharing, engaging with the ecosystem, you know, Joson what you are doing here, putting together a community. This is so important in aligning people and the message that technology companies are going to help solve the needs of the world and people are needed to participate in that process.
So I'll say most scientific or medical companies start from a academic background, that is for sure. I think participation in a community, this is something that will help the company throughout its journey. And I have so many people to thank, so many people I'm grateful for, without whom this would not have happened as compared to my previous life, where I was a little bit more focused on perhaps the mice in my lab, whom I'm very grateful for as well.
We did a lot of scientific research that was important for society, but I think as a company and as founders, reaching out, remaining in contact with people, this is something I truly began to recognize how important this was over the years.
Joson Ng: It's really a lot of the people that we come into contact with that benefit us and help us along the way.
And I think that's really important for a lot of up and coming biotech founders from Singapore to take note of.
Evolution of the life science ecosystem in Singapore
Joson Ng: Let's not mince words. Recent times, it's been really challenging. There's inflation in Singapore and everything costs so much. So it's been a really challenging macroeconomic climate. How do you see the life science ecosystem in Singapore evolving over the next two to three years?
Dr. Tan Min-Han: Yeah. So the macro environment is marked by a rising interest rates, which essentially dampens down the demand for biotech companies. I think that's at the core of the challenge. I want to divide biotech into really two areas. One is health and the other is medicine and they are different.
I think the amount of capital certainly required to develop medical companies, medicines, the drug development process is huge and certainly companies with the best data, the best teams, these will always continue to raise funds. Health companies, on the other hand, are growing in the region. We are seeing with the rise of the middle class, the demand for personalization, the awareness that health is not just a cookie cutter approach.
Personalization is key. There is continued demand for good healthcare services in the region and multi cancer early detection, test lab services such as ours. So I think this is certainly something where I'm optimistic that health will continue always to be something important in Asia, but yeah, I think certainly the landscape is affected by these broad macroeconomic trends, but you know, these things operate in cycles and certainly over time, I'm very optimistic of the whole region that we are seeing that everyone is advancing and doing well, and there's going to be a lot of interest in people taking care of their own health.
Joson Ng: Thank you so much, Dr. Tan. Thank you so much for all your insights and sharing. And again, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.
Dr. Tan Min-Han: No, thank you. Thank you very much for inviting me, Joson. It was a real pleasure to share.
Joson Ng: Oh, the pleasure was mine.
And that was Dr. Tan Min-Han, CEO of Lucence. Stay tuned for monthly podcasts with key stakeholders of the biotech ecosystem including founders, investors, and policy makers. If you have suggestions for the podcast or who you'd like to hear from, feel free to send me an email in the episode description. Join our Nucleate Singapore Slack channel where we are building an open community to enable conversations in the life science ecosystem of Singapore.