Merck Serono agrees oncology diagnostics partnership with Illumina

Merck Serono is to collaborate with life science company Illumina to create new diagnostic solutions in the field of oncology.

The companies are aiming to expand the development of a universal next-generation sequencing-based oncology diagnostic tool for clinical trials of targeted cancer therapies, with the partnership to include product creation, regulatory filings and commercialisation.

Under the terms of the deal, the partners will produce assays that detect and simultaneously measure multiple genetic variants in a single tumour sample in a clinical trial setting.

Illumina has a strong regulatory track record, which was an important consideration for Merck Serono as it seeks to strengthen its position as a leader in precision medicine in oncology.

Susan Herbert, head of global business development at Merck Serono, said: "Our collaboration with Illumina around next-generation sequencing will enable us to perform genome studies at a pace unheard of a few years ago, and could lead to the development of several diagnostics."

This comes after the firm opened a new liquid biopsy RAS biomarker testing centre in Barcelona last month as part of a collaboration with Sysmex Inostics.