GE Healthcare to create cancer tests alongside GlaxoSmithKline

GE Healthcare has announced a new cancer diagnostics partnership between its affiliate Clarient Diagnostic Services and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

The collaboration aims to improve access to diagnostic testing for cancer patients by establishing a network of clinical laboratories to identify genetic mutations associated with different tumour types.

Under the terms of the partnership, GE Healthcare will develop a subscription-based laboratory and data analytics service that will enable better efficiency in the healthcare market related to oncology precision medicine.

The project will commence with Clarient certifying laboratories and generating diagnostic data on metastatic melanoma patients. The first certified laboratories to initiate this work are expected to be operational in several countries in early 2015.

Cindy Collins, chief executive officer at Clarient, said: "This global network of high quality diagnostic capability can be leveraged with confidence by all pharmaceutical companies in search of rigorously standardised oncology diagnostic services and data."