Qiagen and Astellas form companion diagnostic alliance

Qiagen has formed a new alliance with Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas in the field of personalised healthcare.

The master collaboration agreement will see the firms jointly developing and commercialising companion diagnostics to be paired with Astellas drugs for use in cancer and other diseases. The first two programmes will create tests to accompany developmental oncology compounds.

This agreement is not restricted to certain sample types, platforms, indications or biomarkers, allowing Astellas to make full use of Qiagen's expertise in creating assays based on PCR, NGS and multi-modal testing technologies that utilise liquid and tissue biopsies.

Personalised healthcare is a significant new frontier in medicine, making it possible to screen patients to see if they are genetically predisposed to respond well to specific treatments.

Peer Schatz, chief executive officer of Qiagen, said the company "shares Astellas' commitment to contribute actively toward improving the health of patients by realising the benefits of personalised healthcare".

This comes after the firm announced a partnership with AstraZeneca earlier this year to develop a liquid biopsy-based companion diagnostic test to accompany one of the pharmaceutical company's lung cancer drugs.