NEW YORK – Aspira Women's Health said Thursday that is has entered a collaborative research agreement with Baylor Genetics to codevelop an early detection test for ovarian cancer.
Austin, Texas-based Aspira said it will bring its experience in recruitment of patient samples and assay development to the collaboration.
"Aspira has over 10 years of research and experience in early-stage detection of ovarian cancer in women, and we are thrilled to accelerate our innovation and product development platform by entering into this collaborative agreement with Baylor Genetics," Lesley Northrop, chief scientific officer at Aspira, said in a statement. "We look forward to combining the strengths from each respective research team, and working together on our OVA360 clinical study, specifically in our mutual goal of characterizing an ovarian cancer molecular profile."
Northrop added that Baylor Genetics is one of the "founding institutions" of genomic research.
"Ovarian cancer is a particular cancer type in need of better early detection methods, and advances in genetic testing technologies now enable us to develop such a test for clinical use," Brian Merritt, medical director at Baylor Genetics, a joint venture of HU Group Holdings and Baylor College of Medicine, said in a statement. "Aligning with Aspira to co-develop this novel test will advance precision medicine for women with ovarian cancer and potentially lead to earlier intervention, more targeted treatments, and improved outcomes."
Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.