GE Healthcare to Collaborate with GlaxoSmithKline on Commercial Oncology Testing

GE Healthcare to Collaborate with GlaxoSmithKline on Commercial Oncology Testing

GE Healthcare today announced an agreement between its affiliate, Clarient Diagnostic Services, Inc. (Clarient) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The collaboration aims to improve access to diagnostic testing for cancer patients by establishing a network of clinical laboratories to identify genetic mutations associated with different tumour types. The collaboration will enable GE to develop a broader laboratory and data analytics service that will enable better efficiency in the healthcare market related to oncology precision medicine. This will be made available as a subscription-based service and operated by GE Healthcare.

“Our arrangement with GSK will enable us to leverage our clinical, technical and quality management expertise to credential laboratory partners worldwide,” said Cindy Collins, CEO, Clarient. “This global network of high quality diagnostic capability can be leveraged with confidence by all pharmaceutical companies in search of rigorously standardized oncology diagnostic services and data.”

Under terms of the agreement with GSK, GE Healthcare, through its Clarient affiliate, will initially use its clinical laboratory, pathology and genomics expertise, to certify laboratories and generate diagnostic data on metastatic melanoma patients. The first Clarient certified laboratories to initiate this work, are expected to be operational in several countries in early 2015.

Laboratory testing will initially focus on more than 70 mutations relevant to melanoma, including BRAF V600E and V600K, with the opportunity to expand testing beyond melanoma into other tumor types, as the network of clinical laboratories develops.

“Through this agreement, we hope to better address the variability in access and quality of diagnostic testing which is a common problem seen with targeted oncology therapies and related companion diagnostics globally” said Jonathan Pan, Head of Oncology Companion Diagnostics and Disease Strategy, GSK. “The commercial testing infrastructure created through this collaboration will enable advanced diagnostic solutions that should improve how patient care is delivered, where the certified laboratories are operational.”

Clarient’s laboratory and data analytics service will be available to other healthcare organizations worldwide through a subscription service, which is expected to be available next year. The laboratory service, which is standardized, will enable pharmaceutical and other healthcare organizations to have the ability to offer diagnostic testing in any market where Clarient certified laboratories exist. The data analytics service can also provide customizable insights and its possible uses include geospatial analysis, provision of aggregated epidemiological data and the identification and matching of potential patients to clinical trials.

As a leading oncology diagnostic laboratory, Clarient uses innovative and leading diagnostics technologies combined with world-class pathology expertise to assess and characterize cancer in order to provide the most advanced oncology testing and diagnostic services for better patient care.