Collaboration with Mirati Therapeutics targets MET gene mutations to personalize treatment
Hilden, Germany, and Germantown, Maryland, April 13, 2016 – QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced a partnership with Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRTX) to co-develop and commercialize a companion diagnostic test to guide the use of Mirati’s glesatinib (MGCD265), a targeted therapy under development for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The companies aim to create a regulator-approved test to personalize treatment decisions in NSCLC by detecting RNA biomarkers produced by exon 14 skipping mutations of the MET gene.
“We are pleased to partner with Mirati to commercialize a standardized companion diagnostic paired with glesatinib, a compound now in Phase II trials for NSCLC patients with cancer-driving MET alterations. Delivering insights on these clinically actionable variants holds potential to significantly improve clinical outcomes,” said Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer of QIAGEN. “This companion diagnostic for glesatinib is the initial effort under a master collaboration agreement and we continue to discuss potential future projects across various sample types and platforms, such as PCR and NGS, to further expand targeted diagnostic capabilities in this arena.”
“As Mirati advances therapies targeting genetic alterations responsible for driving cancer growth, we are pleased to partner with QIAGEN, which has developed and marketed regulator-approved companion diagnostics for a wide range of genomic biomarkers,” said Charles M. Baum, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of Mirati. “Mirati’s targeted oncology programs depend on companion diagnostics to select the patients who will benefit the most from treatment.”
QIAGEN is at the forefront globally in developing companion diagnostics using genomic insights to guide the selection of medicines for cancer and other diseases. The company already markets Personalized Healthcare kits covering about 30 biomarkers, spanning a variety of automation platforms and biological sample types. QIAGEN continues to expand its pipeline of Sample to Insight technologies for personalized healthcare and intends to submit more tests for regulatory clearance or approval. Numerous co-development partnerships are underway with leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies, some publicly disclosed but most not individually announced.
About QIAGEN
QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions to transform biological materials into valuable molecular insights. QIAGEN sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from blood, tissue and other materials. Assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. Automation solutions tie these together in seamless and cost-effective molecular testing workflows. QIAGEN provides these workflows to more than 500,000 customers around the world in Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare), Applied Testing (forensics, veterinary testing and food safety), Pharma (pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies) and Academia (life sciences research). As of December 31, 2015, QIAGEN employed approximately 4,600 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at http://www.qiagen.com.
