Life Technologies to partner with Bristol-Myers Squibb for companion diagnostics development
Initial focus will be in oncology, but deal provides for a long- term relationship across a broad range of technologies and therapeutic areas.
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CARLSBAD, Calif.—Life Technologies Corp. hasannounced its entrance into a master development agreement with Bristol-MyersSquibb Co. for current and future companion diagnostics projects. This deal marksthe second collaboration between the two companies and represents what LifeTechnologies calls "another step in [the company's] strategy to develop itsdiagnostic business through internal development, partnerships and selectacquisitions"
SOURCE: Life Technologies
The agreement reportedly covers an initial projectfor oncology and provides for a long-term partnership across a potentiallybroad range of Life Technologies instrument platforms and a wide range oftherapeutic areas.
"The pharmaceutical industry is increasinglyturning its focus to discovering and delivering targeted, personalizedmedications," said Ronnie Andrews, president of medical sciences at LifeTechnologies. "As more and more targeted drugs come onto the market in thenext decade, there will be a growing need for diagnostics that can help predictwhich patients will benefit from which drugs.
Life Technologies possesses a breadth of platformsthat can be leveraged in the development of new diagnostics. These platformsspan both genetic and proteomic analysis, including next-generation sequencing,Sanger sequencing, qPCR, flow cytometry and immuno-histochemistry. In addition,the company recently announced that its Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine(PGM) would be developed for proteomics capabilities.
"For oncology alone, hundreds of agents arecurrently in clinical trials, and we see strong market opportunity in therobust expansion this will mean for the companion diagnostics space," saidAndrews. "Life is uniquelypositioned to provide pharma a flexible, cost effective means to manage theevolution of the companion diagnostic assay through the drug developmentprocess."
SOURCE: Life Technologies
