Beijing-headquartered clinical genomics testing company, Berry Genomics and Hong Kong and London-headquartered genetics and digital health company Prenetics announced today key management hires for the new company, Circle DNA, which will be operational for business by the end of Q2 2019.

The 3 key management hires for Circle DNA are Joe Yan (CEO), Claire Wan (COO) and Candy Liu (Head of Marketing). Currently, the company offers two main products as listed on their website: Diet Fitness Pro 360, a test kit designed for those who wants to understand how their DNA affects their diet, nutrition, and exercise profile and Cancer DNA Test, a test kit designed to assess clinically-relevant variants in 35 genes associated with hereditary cancer risk.

Earlier this month, Prenetics acquired Soma Analytics, whose core product is the Kelaa Mental Resilience app for employees and businesses. The platform aims to improve the mental wellbeing of employees through real-time monitoring of known stress biomarkers. This is thought to be, after UK-based DNAFit, the second acquisition for Prenetics. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The prelude to the establishment of Circle DNA was likely during the two companies’ announcement of a joint venture in November 2018. According to the official statement, the joint venture “will work on a direct-to-consumer model, allowing consumers the ability to purchase its suite of genetics enabled health services directly online. The joint venture will also seek collaborations with insurers, governments and other key stakeholders to ensure local market needs are met.”

The global genetics testing market expected to be worth USD 50-billion per annum by 2026, based on Arthur D. Little’s 2017 report titled The Advent of Consumer Owned Genetic Profiles. The report states that diagnostic companies have “a once-only opportunity to set a strategy that embraces the consumer, not just the laboratory or health-care provider. They have the technology and in-house product development capability and, if the strategy is set right, they are best placed to benefit from the new market.”

Just last week, China’s Burning Rock Biotech announced the closing of the Series C financing totaling RMB 850 million. The company currently has three core businesses: cancer patient companion diagnostics, early cancer detection, and cancer genome big data ecosystem.