The collaboration between MMRF and US Oncology Research marries two robust partners in the fight against multiple myeloma. US Oncology Research represents a large community of MM patients and physicians, as the organization sees roughly 20 percent of all new MM cases, and has participated in 38 out of 40 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs. US Oncology Research is already currently involved in about 100 other open trials, and will be the principal investigator overseeing the CoMMpass study. Aside from financial sponsorship of the CoMMpass study, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation brings to the table the technology and the science necessary to process the tissue samples and conduct the genome sequencing and other molecular analyses.  

 

The CoMMpass study already has two pharmaceutical partners—Millennium and Onyx—that, in exchange for financial support of the study, will receive priority access to the data it generates for a six-month window, after which the data will enter the public domain. Two or three additional pharmaceutical partners may be added to the study later. “Our hope is that we will quickly begin generating hypotheses that can lead to clinical trials,” says Anne Quinn Young, vice president of marketing at MMRF. “We’re in a position to play a lead role in connecting this data to therapeutic advances.”  

 

“We need more collaborations like this between the medical and patient communities and academia,” Rifkin says. “We’re off to a good start.”