NEW YORK – BostonGene said Tuesday that it has entered into a strategic partnership with NEC to offer its Tumor Portrait tests outside the US for the first time. The firms will start providing the test to hospitals in NEC's home country of Japan and expand to other, unspecified international markets later on.
Tumor Portrait is a tumor-normal sequencing test that integrates genomic and transcriptomic analysis to produce pharmacogenomic reports about suitable cancer treatment options.
The new agreement expands on an existing relationship between the two companies. Tokyo-based NEC invested $50 million in BostonGene in 2019, and last year, the firms announced a collaboration to analyze the molecular profiles and tumor microenvironments of cancer patients enrolled in NEC's clinical trials to improve responses to cancer treatment.
"Today, NEC remains as dedicated as ever to applying our rich experience in [artificial intelligence] and analytics for improving patients' outcomes," NEC CEO Takayuki Morita said in a statement. "BostonGene's offering of deep molecular and immune profiling, coupled with its computational power and analytics, have already improved the quality of care for cancer patients in both academic and community settings in the United States. Supporting BostonGene's international expansion enables us to continue to rapidly drive innovation that improves the standard of care in Japan and abroad."
Andrew Feinberg, president and CEO of Waltham, Massachusetts-based BostonGene, said that the new partnership will help "expedite our international expansion."