The agreement provides CancerGuide with exclusive commercial rights to a portfolio of well-published and rigorously-validated molecular signatures that predict response for targeted therapeutics as well as collaborative access to clinical research and new molecular discoveries from Duke, a cancer research institution.
CancerGuide is expected to use these technologies with its pharmaceutical clients to improve the efficiency of the drug development process and to develop and commercialize novel clinical diagnostics through its existing agreement with LabCorp.
Robert Taber, vice chancellor of corporate and venture development at Duke University, said: “Duke Medicine is dedicated to ensuring that important new medical discoveries are brought into clinical practice. We are very excited about the potential of our partnership with CancerGuide to bring about dramatic advances in the management of cancer treatment.”
Geoffrey Ginsburg, director of the center for genomic medicine for genome sciences and policy at Duke Institute, said: “CancerGuide has begun building a well-characterised genomic knowledge database compiled from years of clinical studies. This tool coupled with expert consultation by two of the foremost, pioneering scientists in the cancer genomic field, will give drug developers the highest level of actionable data and precision to enhance the likelihood of clinical success of their targeted therapeutic.”
Myla Lai-Goldman, CEO of CancerGuide, said: “CancerGuide now has access to a suite of compelling technologies and know-how that has potential to guide therapy selection decisions for clinicians and to provide highly needed predictive tools for drug developers in the coming years.”