Boehringer and Ventana link up
pharmafile | September 24, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Boehringer, Ventana, oncology
Boehringer Ingelheim has signed a deal with Roche subsidiary Ventana Medical Systems to develop companion diagnostic tests for Boehringer’s oncology programme.
Such tests have become more embedded in pharma R&D since the search for personalised treatments has grown in importance in the market for some drugs, although therapeutics and diagnostics are still not routinely alongside each other.
However, where they are used, they offer doctors help in working out which therapy might best suit a particular patient, and Boehringer hopes that integrating their development into the search for drug candidates should produce more cancer treatments which win favour with international regulators.
Ventana’s field of expertise is in finding instruments and reagents that automate tissue processing and slide staining for cancer diagnostics. While no financial details of the partnership have been released, Ventana will be using its immunohistochemistry technology platform to support what Boehringer is doing.
Klaus Dugi, corporate senior vice president, medicine at Boehringer, said: “We look forward to partnering with Ventana and accessing their significant capabilities and expertise in developing companion diagnostics that will complement our products to further advance the delivery of personalised healthcare solutions for patients.”
Such collaborations are meat and drink to Ventana, which is currently working on more than 150 projects with similar intent worldwide.
Three years ago, Roche put $180 million into the firm, adding staff and investing in new facilities at the US company’s site near Tucson, Arizona.
The Swiss manufacturer bought Ventana for $3.4 billion in 2008 in a bid to tap into the company’s tissue-based diagnostics expertise, and align it with its own therapeutics portfolio in order to make progress in personalised medicine.
It is an area by which Roche sets great store, announcing ten months ago that it intends to invest more than $260 million in the construction of a new production plant for diagnostics in Penzberg in order to meet ‘rising demand’ for its products.
Roche’s own diagnostics operations have had their HQ in Indianapolis, US, in one form or another since the 1960s.
Adam Hill
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