(Reuters) – Cancer test maker Grail Inc said on Friday its telemedicine provider mistakenly sent letters to some 400 patients suggesting they might have developed cancer.
Grail’s flagship cancer screening blood test, Galleri, is designed to detect more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear.
The company, owned by Illumina Inc, said the letters were sent in error by PWNHealth due to a software glitch and were “in no way related to or caused by an incorrect Galleri test result.”
Grail said he contacted patients immediately after the issue, adding that no patient health information has been disclosed or breached because of this.
The software issue facing PWNHealth has now been resolved, he said.
Illumina is currently appealing regulatory orders in the US and EU asking the gene sequencing company to divest Grail after it jumped on regulators to close the acquisition of the cancer test maker.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)