NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – German personalized cancer services company Indivumed announced today that it has signed an agreement to provide Regeneron Pharmaceuticals with tissue samples, as well as clinical and molecular data collection methods, for cancer research.
Under the terms of the deal, Indivumed will supply Regeneron with biospecimens and associated de-identified patient information obtained through an existing collaboration with Geisinger Health Systems. Indivumed said it will collect samples and clinical data from consenting patients already undergoing a surgical tumor resection. Portions of samples not needed for clinical diagnoses will be provided to Regeneron and the Regeneron Genetics Center for R&D purposes.
Indivumed will also work with Regeneron to collect patient samples at certain additional clinical sites in order to develop proprietary biobanking protocols and enable biospecimen collection that fully preserves the molecular profile of cancer patients.
Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"Indivumed's proprietary tumor tissue dissection, preservation process, and growing collection of high-quality tumor tissues will aid Regeneron in developing better tumor models and gaining understanding of our pre-clinical oncology candidates," Gavin Thurston, vice president of oncology and angiogenesis at Regeneron, said in a statement. "We believe this collaboration will better inform our oncology pipeline, bolstering our ability to bring innovative medicines to cancer patients."