Dako and Philips to ally on digital pathology technology

Dako has signed a deal with electronics company Philips into the creation of new technology for application in the developing digital pathology sector.

The agreement will see the tissue-based cancer diagnostic specialist contribute its image analysis applications for use in future clinical products from Philips.

Both firms acknowledged the growing importance of digital pathology, which allows for the digitisation of images normally viewed by pathologists via a microscope, making analysis easier and more efficient.

Their collaboration will initially focus on tissue-based breast cancer diagnosis, while the possibility of expanding the partnership to encompass immunohistology-based prostate and colon cancer diagnostics is also being discussed.

Lars Holmkvist, chief executive officer of Dako, said: “We will be able to deliver highly competitive diagnostic tools ? in order to benefit pathology laboratories, pathologists and ultimately patients.”

This comes after Dako agreed another digital pathology partnership with Omnyx last month, which will focus on the development of image analysis algorithms.