Foundation Medicine and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Announce Partnership to Advance Patient Care in Hematologic Cancers

Partners will co-develop a genomic test to help guide treatment decisions for patients diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma
Foundation Medicine expects to launch new test by year-end

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and NEW YORK - May 2, 2013 - Foundation Medicine and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center today announced a partnership that brings together clinical, genomic and computational expertise to advance patient care in hematologic cancers. This effort will focus on co-development of a new Foundation Medicine molecular diagnostic product designed to match patients with hematologic cancers (leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma) with the most rational targeted therapies or clinical trials for their cancer. Leaders in hematology from Memorial Sloan-Kettering will help accelerate product development by providing clinical and genomic expertise. This product complements FoundationOne™, Foundation Medicine's first product, which offers a similar fully informative genomic profile for solid tumors and likewise provides a concise report to assist physicians in matching patients with the targeted drugs or clinical trials best suited for their unique cancer. FoundationOne was launched in 2012.

"The development of clinical grade sequencing is rapidly changing the practice of oncology, enabling us to more precisely understand and target the genomic alterations that drive a patient's individual cancer," said Craig B. Thompson, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "We are partnering with Foundation Medicine to develop a best-in-class assay for hematologic cancers because we view achieving this goal as an extension of our mission as a comprehensive cancer center: making it possible for all patients to be treated with the therapy that is matched with their individual cancer."

"Memorial Sloan-Kettering is one of the world's premier cancer centers with deep scientific and clinical understanding of hematologic cancers and a commitment to driving a new genomic paradigm of individualized cancer care," said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Foundation Medicine. "Our approach is to collaborate with leaders like Memorial Sloan-Kettering across all areas of clinical oncology and cancer genomics and seek partners who are equally committed to the changing paradigm of cancer care. This is the ideal partnership to support the development of our new product for patients with hematologic malignancies."

This new test is being developed using RNA sequencing in addition to DNA sequencing to better enable identification of the unique genes and classes of genomic alterations that are characteristic of hematologic malignancies. Similar to FoundationOne, the new hematologic malignancy test will assist physicians by matching these alterations with targeted treatment options that may be relevant to the patient's genomic profile based on a comprehensive review of published literature.

The test will be based on technology, methods and computational algorithms developed by Foundation Medicine, and Foundation Medicine will commercialize the test both in the United States and internationally. Memorial Sloan-Kettering will help accelerate the development and optimization of the product by contributing their clinical and genomic expertise in hematologic malignancies. Foundation Medicine operates a CLIA-certified lab in Cambridge, Mass. and receives clinical patient samples from academic medical centers and community hospitals all over the world. The new test is expected to be commercially available by year-end 2013.

About Foundation Medicine
Foundation Medicine® is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient's unique cancer. The company's initial clinical assay, FoundationOne™, is a fully informative genomic profile to identify a patient's individual molecular alterations and match them with relevant targeted therapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicine's molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit www.FoundationMedicine.com or follow Foundation Medicine on Twitter (@FoundationATCG).

Foundation Medicine® is a registered trademark, and FoundationOneTM is a trademark, of Foundation Medicine, Inc.

About Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is the world's oldest and largest private institution devoted to prevention, patient care, research, and education in cancer. Our scientists and clinicians generate innovative approaches to better understand, diagnose, and treat cancer. Our specialists are leaders in biomedical research and in translating the latest research to advance the standard of cancer care worldwide. For more information, go to www.mskcc.org.

Contact for Foundation Medicine:
Dan Budwick
Pure Communications, Inc.
(973) 271-6085

Contact for Memorial Sloan-Kettering:
Christine Hickey
(212) 639-3573