NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Caris Life Sciences said today that it has acquired specialized research management organization firm Pharmatech.
Pharmatech brings to the deal its "Just-In-Time" clinical trial enrollment system and what it calls its "research-ready oncology network," which connects physicians and patients at hundreds of US cancer research centers, including universities, hospitals, and advanced community-based sites.
Caris said that coupling the Pharmatech capabilities with its existing Molecular Intelligence service, which assesses DNA, RNA and proteins to detect molecular profiles that can guide individualized treatment decisions for patients, will allow it to better serve physicians and patients by bringing them clinical trial options with enrollment completed in as little as 10 days.
Most recently, Caris said it is working to submit its MI Transcriptome assay for US Food and Drug Administration approval.
"Innovations in novel targeted cancer therapies in clinical development are transformative for patients with increasingly dramatic response rates," Caris Chief Medical Officer Michael Korn said in a statement. "Unfortunately, access to clinical trials for these therapies is not broadly available, and we are seeing low participation rates … primarily due to lack of access to and awareness of both broad molecular profiling and open clinical trials," he added. "Caris' acquisition of Pharmatech will change this, helping to ensure that patients with rare mutations and other biomarkers can readily be identified and connected with emerging therapies that can positively impact their lives."
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.