This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
Over the past ten years, there has been a fundamental shift in the way cancer is being treated. Access to genomic data has evolved the way the community thinks about researching, detecting, and treating cancer. Due to this shift, the expansion of the genomic sequencing industry has been rapid, and many companies are striving to address the clinical needs of patients and customers globally. But as those needs become greater, we must continue thinking about new ways to improve the options we offer to advance cancer care, both through collaboration and innovation.
Roche recently announced that it has entered into a 15-year, non-exclusive partnership with Illumina, a sequencing systems and technology company, to accelerate the adoption of next-generation sequencing testing in oncology through a distributed, or decentralized, model. Roche, Foundation Medicine, and Illumina have a shared vision to ensure that patients globally have access to reliable and timely diagnostic approaches in oncology. This, in turn, allows healthcare providers around the world to prescribe the most appropriate therapy to treat their patients.
Foundation Medicine is excited to support this important milestone and engage in a collaborative effort with Roche Sequencing Solutions. Together, we will develop a distributed product based on FoundationOne®CDx technology to expand access to populations of patients across the world that cannot be addressed with a centralized lab model alone. The genomic insights from our tests are transforming the way many oncologists approach making treatment decisions for their patients, and we, alongside Roche, in their partnership with Illumina, have the opportunity to utilize our complementary capabilities to extend the reach of comprehensive genomic profiling solutions by equipping laboratories with solutions to perform testing locally.
Through this collaboration, we now have the opportunity to develop in vitro diagnostics solutions for use on the instruments available on Illumina’s NextSeq 550Dx System that are able to be distributed beyond our central lab. These distributed solutions for both tissue and blood biopsy assessment build upon the AVENIO family of oncology assay products from Roche and with our commitment to accelerate clinical research with all of our partners by streamlining workflows and expanding patient access to diagnostic solutions, starting with FoundationOne CDx.
At Foundation Medicine, partnerships are at the core of our mission. We know that no one company can change cancer care alone, and we are always considering innovative approaches to improving the patient journey, including through alignment with industry partners. Our tests and data insights help doctors to characterize disease, and can optimize treatment decision making, and many of our partners are able to use that information to develop more treatment options for patients.
While precision medicine is a reality today, we have only unlocked a fraction of its potential. We are constantly evolving our impact on patient care by transforming cancer diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. Together with our academic and biopharma partners, we are an important part of an expanding ecosystem where all of our insights help to inform each other, and subsequently, make more impactful advancements for patients.
This collaborative ecosystem is also inclusive of researchers, physicians, payors, advocates, patients, and the investment of many innovative diagnostic and pharmaceutical organizations. Together, we can help drive widespread and more routine use of personalized treatment. And through this newest collaboration with Roche and Illumina, we can continue to catalyze the transformation of cancer care through innovative precision medicine approaches.