The companies plan to partner with pharmaceutical firms to boost early clinical adoption of ultra-sensitive liquid biopsy companion diagnostics
The partnership will leverage Qiagen’s expertise in the diagnostic field. (Credit: Belova59 from Pixabay)
Qiagen has entered into a global strategic alliance with Japanese firm Sysmex to develop and commercialise cancer companion diagnostic products.
The partnership will leverage Qiagen’s expertise in the diagnostic field and Sysmex’s Plasma-Safe-SeqS technology for next generation sequencing (NGS).
The two companies intend to collaborate with pharmaceutical firms to develop drug treatments for cancer, as well as boost early clinical adoption of ultra-sensitive liquid biopsy companion diagnostics.
Qiagen and Sysmex already offer the ipsogen JAK2 blood-cancer test in Japan, under a long-term partnership. The companies will introduce new cancer companion-diagnostics products in different regions of the world.
According to Qiagen, genetic analysis of tumours will help detect the genes responsible for the development and spread of a tumour and to target a suitable treatment.
Liquid biopsy in combination with sensitive NGS enables to assess patients at different points of their cancer treatment, it said.
Qiagen corporate business development and molecular diagnostics business area head Jean-Pascal Viola said: “Combining Qiagen’s global reach with Sysmex’s NGS capabilities is an important milestone in advancing the use of NGS technologies in clinical decision-making and is a testament to our shared vision of using this powerful technology to improve outcomes for patients worldwide.
“This alliance will add strong NGS capabilities to our regulatory and clinical expertise and commercialization, and help our partners in the pharmaceuticals industry by expanding our strong position and product offering in companion diagnostics.
“We look forward to this alliance creating significant benefits for our pharma partners – and ultimately for treating patients.”
Qiagen holds a range of technologies, from NGS to polymerase chain reaction (PCR), for companion-diagnostics development. Its portfolio consists of ten PCR-based companion-diagnostics products that are approved by the FDA.
In addition, the company has collaboration agreements with over 25 companies to develop and commercialise companion diagnostics for drugs in development.
In March this year, Qiagen secured an emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the FDA for its fast and easy-to-use QIAreach Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Total Test.