FEW challenges in modern medicine are as urgent as improving how cancer is detected and treated. For Sir Harpal Singh Kumar, one principle has guided decades of work across science, policy and healthcare: outcomes improve dramatically when the disease is identified early.
As chief scientific officer and president, international at healthcare firm Grail, he leads the strategy, partnerships and policy work aimed at bringing multi-cancer early detection from concept to clinical reality. Central to this effort is the Galleri test, a blood-based assay designed to detect signals associated with more than 50 cancer types before symptoms appear. Unlike conventional screening, which targets single cancers such as breast or bowel, Galleri can identify multiple cancers through a single blood draw, potentially enabling earlier and more effective treatment.
Evidence from clinical studies, including the Pathfinder 2 trial in the US and Canada, suggests that when Galleri is used alongside existing screening programmes it can detect significantly more cancers within a year while correctly ruling out cancer in nearly all individuals without the disease.
For Kumar, these findings underline the possibility of shifting diagnosis to earlier stages, improving survival outcomes and reducing the burden on families and health systems. The ambition is nothing less than a transition from late-stage intervention to proactive detection.
“Cancer screening is one of our most powerful tools for early diagnosis. Screening has delivered improvements to outcomes in breast, bowel and cervical cancer, and more recently in lung cancer. But there’s a long way to go to ensure that every type of cancer receives the same focus and the same opportunity for early diagnosis,” he has said.
Global partnerships have been critical to advancing that vision. In late 2025, Grail entered a collaboration with Samsung in which Samsung C&T and Samsung Electronics committed £81 million to support the commercialisation of Galleri in South Korea, with the potential for expansion into Japan and Singapore.
“Samsung's significant equity investment strengthens our balance sheet and provides further cash runway as we advance through key milestones to secure reimbursement for Galleri in the US and key international markets,” Kumar noted.
Momentum continued into 2026 with results from the NHS Galleri trial in England. Although the study did not meet its primary endpoint of a statistically significant reduction in combined Stage III and IV cancers, Grail reported a favourable trend toward fewer Stage IV diagnoses and increased detection of cancers at Stages I and II when Galleri was added to standard screening in certain groups.
“The design of the NHS-Galleri trial was informed by a growing body of evidence showing that, across multiple cancer types, reductions in late-stage disease are strongly associated with reductions in cancer mortality,” Kumar commented on the findings.
“The reduction in Stage IV cancer diagnoses is an exciting and critically important outcome, which we believe can lead to more effective intervention for patients, particularly given the substantial and growing arsenal of effective treatments for many Stage III cancers.”
Kumar joined Grail in April 2020 as president of Grail Europe, tasked with establishing and expanding the company’s European presence. His remit has since broadened to include global scientific direction, partnerships and market development beyond Europe, including Asia and North America.
Beyond Grail, he continues to engage actively with debates about the wider role of science in society. In November 2025 he delivered the keynote lecture Science for the Common Good at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, reflecting on the responsibility of scientific institutions to address societal challenges. He argued that scientific endeavour should be directed towards public benefit and that trust and understanding beyond laboratories and boardrooms are essential if innovation is to deliver lasting impact.
Kumar was born in Britain in 1965 to Indian Sikh parents who had fled what became Pakistan during the 1947 Partition. His father worked in factories before opening a grocery shop, where Kumar spent time helping as a child. He has reflected that his parents’ experiences instilled an enduring lesson: “to be even more ambitious, because the only thing holding us back is ourselves.”
He studied chemical engineering at St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating with an MEng and MA. He later completed an MBA at Harvard Business School, graduating as a Baker Scholar and receiving both the Ford and Wolfe prizes.
Kumar began his professional life in healthcare consulting at McKinsey & Company in London, advising pharmaceutical companies and academic medical centres. An early pro bono engagement with The Papworth Trust, a charity supporting people with disability and respiratory illness, led to his appointment as chief executive in 1992 at the age of 27. There he stabilised the charity’s finances and led its turnaround, gaining early experience in operational restructuring and mission-driven leadership.
In 1997 he founded Nexan Group, a company developing monitoring technologies for clinical trials and chronic conditions. Expansion into the US exposed him to regulatory pathways, capital markets and the challenges of scaling healthcare technology businesses. The experience marked the beginning of a sustained engagement with the interface between scientific discovery and commercialisation.
In 2002 he joined Cancer Research UK as chief executive of cancer research technology, the charity’s commercial arm. He became chief operating officer in 2004 and chief executive in 2007, a role he held for more than a decade. During this period he expanded research funding, strengthened policy engagement and oversaw organisational transformation.
In recognition of his services to cancer research, Kumar was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours.
Kumar also serves as chair of the trading board at Our Future Health, a major UK population health initiative aiming to recruit and follow millions of participants to improve understanding of disease risk. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and of St John’s College, Cambridge.
Outside professional life he maintains a wide range of interests, including theatre, opera and football, and continues to contribute to public lectures and advisory boards promoting scientific literacy and evidence-based policymaking.
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