Qiagen agrees two biomarker licensing deals

Qiagen has agreed two new licensing arrangements that will provide it with global rights to potentially promising new oncology biomarkers.

The life science company has licensed diagnostic rights from Insight Genetics for the anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene, which has been identified as a promising target for innovative lung cancer therapies.

At the same time, a deal has been struck with Personal Genome Diagnostics for Qiagen to acquire exclusive rights to test for mutations of the IDH1 and IDH2 genes, which play a role in brain gliomas, acute myelogenous leukaemia and other cancers.

Qiagen is looking to strengthen its position in this sector due to the increasingly important role personalised therapies are set to play in treating cancers of all types.

Peer Schatz, chief executive officer of Qiagen, said: "In addition to providing these assays to researchers, we intend to develop companion diagnostics to make these biomarkers available in combination with new medicines."

Earlier this month, the firm allied with the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology to develop a new molecular diagnostic test for latent tuberculosis infection.