Bayer HealthCare and Ventana agree diagnostic alliance

Bayer HealthCare is expanding its existing partnership with Ventana Medical Systems to encompass the creation of new companion diagnostics.

The new research will focus on immunohistochemistry and will span Bayer?'s entire portfolio of targeted therapy projects. Ventana has proven expertise in immunohistochemistry and the detection of various protein structures.

Through this collaborative project, a series of diagnostic tests for Bayer's biomarker-targeted therapeutics will be developed from the early discovery stage through to the final commercialisation phase.

Ventana will create an expert team with resources exclusively assigned to Bayer projects. The new collaboration is indicative of the growing importance of companion diagnostics to Bayer's development platform.

Professor Dr Khusru Asadullah, vice-president and head of global biomarkers at Bayer HealthCare, said: "We are looking forward to continue our collaboration with the Ventana team to develop companion diagnostics that will help to select targeted therapeutics for cancer patients."

This comes after the firm entered into a new oncology-focused alliance with the German Cancer Research Centre last month.