NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Life Technologies and RainTree Oncology Services today announced a collaborative agreement to bring advances in molecular testing to the broader patient market while developing a streamlined protocol for bringing patients into clinical trials for targeted therapies.
Through the deal, Life Tech intends to participate in developing next-generation sequencing panels for the deep interrogation of tumors. Other assays may also be developed.
Patient data will be housed in a proprietary database containing de-identified information, which will be made available to drug companies to recruit Phase 1 patients, and to participating clinical research organizations in support of patient recruitment for later phase trials.
The two companies said that the deal allows each to leverage RainTree's datasets and use the information "to enrich patient populations for early phase clinical trials and apply advanced bioinformatics techniques via Life Technologies' proprietary Compendia Oncomine solution to help identify targeted therapeutics for trials on certain tumor genotypes."
The agreement's key elements include collaboration on matching cancer patients to clinical trials using a next-generation sequencing oncology screening panel; the development of clinical trial recruitment databases incorporating RainTree's patient dataset enhanced by other data sources, such as Life Tech's analytics engine; educating payors and health plans about the benefits of next-generation sequencing; and building and marketing product, test, and data offerings for clinical research organizations.
"Our goal is to ensure that patients in the community setting have the same access to advanced technologies, such as genetic sequencing, as patients in the top academic centers," Ronnie Andrews, president of genetic and medical sciences at Life Technologies, said in a statement. "This collaboration also establishes a mechanism for pharmaceutical companies to identify the patients they need for clinical trials to bring new, targeted therapies to market."
Financial and other details were not disclosed.