Life Technologies Corp, Carlsbad, Calif, and RainTree Oncology Services, San Diego, will collaborate to make the latest advances in molecular testing available to more patients.
The companies also plan to educate private payors and health plans about the benefits of next-generation sequencing.
“Our goal is to ensure that patients in the community setting have the same access to advanced technologies, such as genetic sequencing, as patients in the top academic centers,” says Ronnie Andrews, president of genetic and medical sciences, Life Technologies. “This collaboration also establishes a mechanism for pharmaceutical companies to identify the patients they need for clinical trials to bring new, targeted therapies to market.”
Through the collaboration, Life plans to participate in development of next-generation sequencing panels that will allow for deep interrogation of tumors; additional assays may also be developed.
The agreement provides for the companies to leverage RainTree’s data sets, and use the information to enrich patient populations for early phase clinical trials and apply advanced bioinformatics techniques to help identify targeted therapeutics for trials on certain tumor genotypes.
More than half of cancer patients are seen in community oncology practices, according to Inside Oncology, Academic Cancer Centers (NCCC). The 500-plus new targeted compounds now in development are leading to a large unmet need for recruitment of patients based on specific molecular profiles.
[Source: Life Technologies]
