NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Qiagen today said that it has signed a master collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize companion diagnostics for existing Novartis products as well as compounds in Novartis' development pipeline.
The non-exclusive deal is the ninth master framework agreement for Qiagen and covers all Qiagen platforms, indications, or biomarkers, it said. Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Qiagen noted that it is involved in more than 20 collaborations with pharma and biotech firms to develop, validate, and market companion diagnostics.
The company recently announced a 4 percent increase in its third quarter revenues and highlighted growing demand for its companion diagnostic assays and higher revenues from pharma co-development projects. On a conference call after the release of the financial results, Qiagen CEO Peer Schatz said that the firm recently completed a premarket approval submission to the US Food and Drug Administration for a companion diagnostic paired with a novel medicine, though he declined to elaborate further.
In late October, the firm also announced a companion diagnostic agreement with Astellas Pharma for cancer and other diseases. Among its other CDx partners are Clovis, Eli Lilly, and Bayer HealthCare.