Summary: Leica Biosystems announces a strategic investment in Indica Labs to develop a next-gen digital pathology platform and accelerate AI-enabled companion diagnostics for cancer care.
Takeaways:
- Innovative Digital Pathology Platform: The collaboration will combine Leica Biosystems’ Aperio scanner portfolio with Indica Labs’ HALO AP software to create a comprehensive diagnostic platform, supporting both onsite and remote diagnoses.
- AI Marketplace and GLP Features: The platform will feature an open AI applications marketplace and offer HALO Link for secure, collaborative image management tailored to Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) workflows.
- Boosting Companion Diagnostics (CDx): Leica Biosystems will integrate Indica Labs into its CDx development program, leveraging AI to create next-generation assays that enhance access to precision cancer therapies.
Leica Biosystems, a provider of anatomic and digital pathology solutions, has agreed to make a significant strategic investment in Indica Labs, a company that offers AI-powered digital pathology software.
Bolstering AI-enabled Companion Diagnostics (CDx)
This partnership has the potential to accelerate AI-enabled companion diagnostics (CDx) and support discoveries and treatments based on discrete or complex biomarker expression profiles that are not discernable by the human eye.
New Digital Pathology Platform
As part of the agreement, Leica Biosystems and Indica Labs plan to launch a diagnostic digital pathology platform, pairing Leica Biosystems’ Aperio scanner portfolio with a customized version of Indica Labs’ HALO AP image management software, for use by clinical customers. The platform will be available exclusively from Leica Biosystems.
The platform is expected to provide customers with a full suite of enterprise-grade digital pathology workflow functionalities, supporting onsite and remote primary diagnosis, and enabling customers to integrate AI applications of their own choosing through comprehensive open interfaces (APIs). The companies also expect to open an AI applications marketplace, offering both their own and third-party applications.
For customers with a need for Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) workflows, the companies expect to offer the HALO Link platform with collaborative browser-based image management features, enabling distributed teams to safely and securely manage, share, and analyze digital slides and data.
Additionally, Leica Biosystems expects to integrate Indica Labs into the company’s CDx development program, working with Indica Labs on next-generation AI-enabled CDx assays. Leica Biosystems’ CDx development program, currently based out of Centers for Enabling Precision Medicine in the United Kingdom and the United States, partners with pharma companies globally to help unlock patient access to novel cancer therapies.
“This is a truly groundbreaking partnership designed to accelerate the advent of next-generation AI-enabled solutions in cancer diagnostics,” says Gustavo Perez-Fernandez, president of Leica Biosystems. “Leica Biosystems is proud to partner with Indica Labs to develop and deliver a world-class computational pathology solution to customers and their patients. The opportunities for innovation are endless with our Aperio GT 450 DX and Indica Labs’ HALO software for image management.”
Indica Labs CEO Steven Hashagen commented, “we are delighted to team up with Leica Biosystems under this exciting arrangement. As two leading players in digital pathology, with complementary capabilities, this initiative will combine Leica Biosystems’ expertise and footprint in instrumentation with Indica’s expertise and footprint in enterprise software and AI. This collaboration between two companies dedicated to open pathology offers the potential to break down some of the barriers that prevent patients from receiving fast, reliable diagnoses and effective therapies.”
HALO AP is CE-IVDR marked for in-vitro diagnostic use in Europe, the UK, and Switzerland. HALO AP is For Research Use Only in the USA and is not FDA cleared for clinical diagnostic use. In addition, HALO AP provides built-in compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA, and GDPR.
Piper Sandler & Co. served as Indica Labs’ exclusive strategic advisor.
