Africa has the greatest genomic diversity in the world, but is the most underrepresented in global genomic data. Building the genomic data stack will allow innovations in diagnostics and treatment for cancer and a range of other diseases—and given the underrepresentation, there is space for multiple actors to grow to significant scale. Black people globally have both a higher incidence and higher death rates from cancer. Further non-communicable diseases, including cancer, are on the rise in Africa and there will be increased demand for both diagnostic and therapeutics in Africa and at an affordable price. In addition, international pharmaceutical and biotech firms require genetic diversity in their research studies, but struggle to reach significant genetic diversity (i.e., not enough clinical trial participants from diverse backgrounds, not enough diverse genomic data). They are not (yet) exploring Africa operations given the complexity to operate, though are looking to invest in order to access genomic diversity.
Yemaachi is tapping into a 20 billion USD drug discovery market.
Yemaachi is building the foundation for precision cancer diagnostics (testing) and therapeutics (drugs, therapies) made for Africans and diversifying the information available to drive global innovations in cancer research and care. Yemaachi is expanding access to precision cancer diagnostics (tests that better diagnose whether people have cancer) and therapeutics (drugs and other therapies that better treat cancer after it is diagnosed) by sequencing genomic samples from Across Africa. They are also tailoring existing diagnostics to African populations, identifying new biomarkers and diagnostics for early detection of cancer, and promoting awareness on early diagnostics and genomic testing.
