Yourgene Health Launches Insight DPYD Assay

Enhanced pharmacogenetic workflow includes additional variants to support safer, personalised chemotherapy treatment for cancer patients

19 May 2026 -- Paris, France and Manchester, UK -- Yourgene Health (part of the Novacyt Group), an international molecular diagnostics company with a broad portfolio of integrated technologies and services, announces the launch of Yourgene Insight DPYD assay, an assay utilising genetic insights for safer chemotherapy treatments to align with updated testing guidelines.

Yourgene Insight DPYD is a simple-to-use genotyping test that can identify cancer patients with dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency, which can cause severe and sometimes lethal side effects in patients being treated with chemotherapeutic drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), commonly used in the treatment of colorectal, head and neck, breast, pancreatic and stomach cancers. Over two million cancer patients globally are treated with fluoropyrimidines (including 5-FU) each year; 10–20% of these patients suffer severe, and sometimes fatal side effects associated with DPD deficiency. Screening patients for DPYD variants allows treatments to be adjusted accordingly.

Following updated guidelines from a joint consensus of organisations such as AMP (Association for Molecular Pathology) and ACMG (American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics), the 2019 original Yourgene DPYD test has been enhanced to enable the number of variants to be detected to increase from six to 19. This includes the 14 recommended by these updated guidelines, plus five additional variants for broader coverage and enhanced global relevance to support safer, more informed chemotherapy treatment decisions, demonstrating the Company’s ability to meet clinicians’, laboratories’ and patients’ needs. The product has been launched for Research Use Only (RUO) initially with In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR) and other regulatory territory approvals to follow in due course. Many countries have already implemented DPYD genotyping ahead of prescribing chemotherapy treatment and there is a mixed model of private pay and reimbursement.

The Yourgene Insight DPYD test has the same ARMS (amplification refractory mutation system) allele specific amplification workflow and format as the original DPYD kit, with ready-to-use reagents, simple data interpretation to identify the presence or absence of 19 variants and a fast turnaround time enabling results to be provided the same day, helping to ensure there is no delay in patients starting their chemotherapy treatment.

The Company has continued to invest in research and development to expand its product portfolio, and is now translating this into commercially launched products and tangible pipeline progress.

Lyn Rees, Chief Executive Officer of Novacyt, commented: “We are pleased to have launched the Yourgene Insight DPYD assay on schedule, enabling a streamlined, cost-effective pharmacogenetic workflow that supports safer, more personalised treatment decisions for cancer patients at risk of suffering a severe, and potentially life-threatening reaction to common chemotherapy. By listening to customer feedback and working with key opinion leaders, we have ensured additional variants have been included in the test enhancing our global coverage for the product, strengthening our market position. The new kit delivers a deeper insight and greater confidence for clinical decision-making, helping reduce adverse side effects while improving patient safety.”

About Yourgene Health
Yourgene Health, part of the Novacyt Group, has an integrated portfolio of genomic technologies and services, primarily focused on molecular diagnostics for reproductive health and precision medicine. Yourgene also has a portfolio of instrumentation, powered by Ranger Technology, enabling automated sample preparation and target enrichment of DNA. Our mission to enable scientific advances to positively impact health, diagnostics and genomic discoveries, remains at the core of our focus. Yourgene offers a comprehensive suite of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) solutions, including a complete NGS workflow designed to provide laboratories with flexible, scalable testing and a broad clinical menu, tailored to their needs. In addition, we provide a clinical NIPT sample service through our Manchester Genomic Service Laboratory for healthcare professionals. The IONA test pioneered the NIPT screening landscape in 2015 as the first in vitro diagnostic NIPT assay available on the market. Supporting the wider reproductive lifecycle, we also offer a portfolio of PCR-based clinical screening assays, including tests for cystic fibrosis, aneuploidy analysis, pregnancy loss, male factor infertility, and thrombosis risk. As part of our expanding Precision Medicine portfolio, our DPYD genotyping PCR assay supports safer chemotherapy regimes, by identifying patients at risk of severe fluoropyrimidine toxicity. Early detection of DPD deficiency before starting 5-FU treatment enables clinicians to adjust chemotherapy dosing and avoid serious, potentially life-threatening adverse reactions. Powered by Ranger Technology, our portfolio of automated DNA size selection instruments delivers high-precision fragment selection and dynamic target enrichment across a wide range of clinical and research sequencing applications. Designed to support laboratories from low- to high-throughput workflows, Ranger instruments provide an innovative solution for applications including NIPT, gene synthesis, CRISPR gene editing, and long-read sequencing. Developed in close collaboration with PacBio, the LightBench Discover is fully compatible with the PacBio Revio and Vega platforms, making it ideally suited for enhancing long-read sequencing workflows. The LightBench Discover is an automated 3-in-1 electrophoresis system combining DNA size selection, fragment length analytics, and quantification in a single benchtop solution, removing the need for multiple instruments and simplifying laboratory workflows. Visit: www.yourgenehealth.com.