CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foundation Medicine, Inc., a molecular information company that brings comprehensive cancer genome analysis to routine clinical care, today announced the initiation of a strategic collaboration with Sanofi (NYSE: SNY). Foundation Medicine will use their genomic sequencing and analytic capabilities to identify genetic biomarkers and potential companion diagnostics for select Sanofi oncology drug candidates. This is Foundation Medicine’s fifth major pharmaceutical company alliance, each of which utilizes the company’s comprehensive technology for providing a fully informative molecular cancer profile.
“Sanofi and Foundation Medicine share a commitment to new clinical solutions that address individual patient needs,” said Donald A. Bergstrom, M.D., Ph.D., associate vice president and global head, translational and experimental medicine at Sanofi. “Sanofi is focused on increasing innovation in R&D through networks of creativity that can harness complex science to enable targeted therapies for patients. Foundation Medicine is an ideal collaborator in this mission.”
“Foundation Medicine has rapidly become a molecular analysis partner of choice for both academia and the biopharma industry,” said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Foundation Medicine. “Our unique capability to correlate clinical data with specific genomic alterations has enabled these innovative partnerships in genomic discovery for cancer treatment. Targeted cancer therapeutics routinely demonstrate improved clinical safety and efficacy when matched with the patients most likely to benefit, and we believe this alliance with Sanofi will help catalyze the development of their targeted candidates.”
Foundation Medicine has signed five strategic biopharmaceutical alliances to date around their complete molecular information capabilities. These partnerships complement Foundation Medicine’s core cancer diagnostics capability, a comprehensive cancer genomic test that provides physicians with genomic information that may help match patients with treatments or clinical trials specific for the genomic profile of their tumor.
About Foundation Medicine’s Comprehensive Cancer Genomic Test
Foundation Medicine’s comprehensive cancer genomic test uses next-generation sequencing to analyze routine clinical specimens (i.e., small amounts of formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tumor tissue) for molecular alterations in approximately 200 cancer-related genes. The test is optimized for clinical-grade analysis of tumor tissues, overcoming multiple complexities (such as purity, ploidy and clonality) inherent to tumor genomes. Test results are reported through a secure, interactive website linking genomic data to a structured knowledge base of relevant, publicly available scientific and medical information. The company also aims to provide information on relevant clinical trials to enable a more rapid recruitment of patients into trials for targeted therapies. Foundation Medicine’s test can serve as a helpful decision-support tool for physicians to recommend cancer treatment approaches tailored to each patient’s molecular subtype.
About Foundation Medicine
Foundation Medicine is dedicated to improving cancer care through the development of comprehensive cancer diagnostics that will help physicians inform treatment decisions based on an individual patient’s molecular cancer subtype. Foundation Medicine’s first laboratory developed test, based on a next-generation sequencing platform, is designed to accommodate a broad landscape of cancer genome information and a growing repertoire of targeted treatments and clinical research opportunities. Foundation Medicine’s test will assist physicians to make prompt and informed determinations about the best cancer treatments and clinical trial options for each patient, taking into account each patient’s unique cancer-associated alterations alongside publicly available scientific and medical information. The company’s founding advisors are world leaders in genome technology, cancer biology and medical oncology; they, alongside clinicians, biotech and molecular diagnostics industry leaders, are working to harness emerging technologies to develop unparalleled tests that will identify and interpret an ever-growing set of actionable genomic alterations, truly enabling personalized cancer medicine. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.foundationmedicine.com.
Contact:
Pure Communications, Inc.
Dan Budwick, 973-271-6085
