Qiagen expands Dx operations in China
QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN) says that it will expand access to its digene HPV Test across China through a co-marketing agreement with KingMed Diagnostics, China’s largest independent laboratory network. Through the agreement, KingMed Diagnostics will function as a centralized lab, allowing smaller hospitals and those in less-populated areas to offer the digene HPV Test and send samples to KingMed Diagnostics for processing and analysis. The digene HPV Test was first registered in China in 2000 and is now widely available in many of the country’s top-tier hospitals and private labs.
Foundation Medicine collaborates with Array BioPharma
Foundation Medicine is reporting that it is collaborating with Array BioPharma (NASDAQ: ARRY) to assist them in targeting patients that are most likely to respond to treatment. Array has a portfolio of targeted cancer agents in early stages of clinical development. Through this collaboration, Array says that it intends to determine the genetic profile of tumors of patients who are treated with certain of its anticancer agents. The goal of this work is to understand how to identify patients who may respond to a given targeted therapy to ensure that each patient gets the optimal drug to treat their individual disease. Foundation Medicine’s cancer genomic test uses next-generation sequencing to analyze routine clinical specimens for molecular alterations in approximately 200 cancer-related genes. Test results are reported through a secure, interactive website linking genomic data to a structured knowledge base of relevant, publicly available scientific and medical information.
Abbott will develop companion diagnostic in collaboration with Merck
Abbott says it will collaborate with Merck to evaluate the use of a FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization)-based companion diagnostic test to aid in the development of a Merck investigational cancer therapy. FISH-based companion diagnostic tests are designed to identify specific DNA sequences to help guide physicians in determining which patients are more or less likely to benefit from a particular therapy. Under terms of a collaboration agreement Abbott will develop a test based on its proprietary FISH technology, intended to identify deletions of the TP53 gene in cancer patients. The Abbott FISH assay will be evaluated in clinical trials to help identify patients more likely to respond favorably to Merck’s investigational cancer therapy.
Provista raises $5M
Provista Diagnostics, Inc. has entered into purchase agreements with a group of institutional investors to raise $5.0 million dollars in a Series A Preferred financing. Provista intends to use the majority of the funds received for completion of a confirmatory clinical trial and FDA 510(k) submission for its BT Test®, a blood test that detects the presence of breast cancer and is used in conjunction with mammography.
Quotient Biodiagnostics raises $11.2M
Quotient Biodiagnostics has completed an $11.2 million growth equity financing led by Galen Partners, a US-based healthcare venture capital investment firm. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Alba Bioscience is the manufacturing and product development arm of Quotient. The new funds will be used to expand the operations of Alba Bioscience in Edinburgh, Scotland, fund the growth of Quotient’s US commercial operations and accelerate the development of the Group’s next generation automated transfusion diagnostics platform. -Peter Winter
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