NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – MedStar Health said today that it has made a deal with German firm Indivumed, making it a contributor to the company's biobank and giving it access to the data therein.
According to MedStar, the partnership gives its researchers access to biospecimens and associated clinical data in Indivumed's global cancer database, which may help uncover new individualized diagnosis and treatment strategies for cancer.
Under what it called a "multi-year agreement," MedStar researchers will in turn collect lung, breast, colorectal, pancreatic and other cancer tissues from the health system's most active cancer programs, which they will then contribute according to Indivumed's biobanking standards.
Tissue collection at Georgetown Lombardi will continue pursuant to Georgetown University's existing agreement with Indivumed, the company said.
Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"By participating in the Indivumed global network, we'll have access to a critical mass of biological samples and clinical data for use in unique research for our community," Neil Weissman, president of the MedStar Health Research Institute, said in a statement.
Indivumed has signed a number of similar access and contribution agreements with other health systems and research groups recently, including Northwell Health, The University of Rochester Medical Center, and the Geisinger Health System.