Illumina Enters Pact With Three Major Drugmakers on Test Development

Illumina has entered into a strategic alliance with three major pharmaceutical makers in the hopes of further fine-tuning molecular companion diagnostics for oncology care. The San Diego-based Illumina will work with Sanofi, AstraZeneca, and Janssen Biotech in order to create a multigene testing panel for determining the best drug regimen for treating a specific cancer patient. The companies will collaborate on future clinical trials for targeted cancer therapies. The intent, officials said, is to expand the current genetic pathways for optimizing courses of treatment. To date, only 125 cancer-related genes and 12 growth-related pathways have been discovered, and there are presumably hundreds of more that are extant. Meanwhile, some 800 oncology drugs are currently in some stage of development and require more data to fine-tune dosages and targeting. “This partnership has the potential to deliver an unprecedented amount of clinical information from a single test,” said Ruth March, AstraZeneca’s vice president of personalized health care. “Our aim is that doctors can use these tests to prescribe the right drugs to the right patients.” The discoveries would allow the three pharma firms to more easily obtain regulatory approval and market the dozens of oncology drugs that are in their product pipeline, while helping Illumina develop a more accurate and broad next-generation sequencing platform. The financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed. Illumina, which focuses on companion diagnostics and sequencing platforms, has been growing dramatically. Its revenue through the first half of 2013 was up nearly 30 percent. It has recently inked business agreements to help it expand its business in both Europe and China. The company’s stock is up more than 140 percent over the past year. Takeaway: Illumina will work closely with pharmaceutical manufacturers to help fine-tune its next-generation sequencing test platform for oncology patients.