Guardant Health announced that it has entered into separate agreements with AstraZeneca, Merck, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer Inc. to develop a 500-plus-gene liquid biopsy panel designed to help drug companies speed clinical trials and the development of targeted cancer drugs and immunotherapies. The 500-plus-gene panel is expected to be the industry's largest commercially available liquid biopsy panel. It will leverage Guardant Health's patented Digital Sequencing platform along with the latest innovations from Guardant360, Guardant Health's industry leading comprehensive liquid biopsy, to create an expansive panel optimized for the clinical and pre-clinical drug investigations of its partners. Guardant Health plans to introduce the test in mid-2017, followed shortly thereafter by a CLIA-certified version for Guardant Health's biopharma collaborators.