Foundation Medicine Enters Extensive Collaboration with Novartis

Foundation Medicine has announced a new agreement with Novartis to provide comprehensive genomic analysis in support of Novartis’ clinical oncology programs.

Novartis plans to use Foundation Medicine’s molecular information platform across many of Novartis’ Phase 1 and 2 oncology clinical programs.

The pilot program established between Novartis and Foundation Medicine 18 months ago has generated very interesting data, and this type of tumor genomic profiling has become an essential component of Novartis’ clinical trials.

The partnership consists of running Foundation Medicine’s comprehensive genomic profiling on most Phase 1 and 2 clinical trial enrollees over the next three years.

The partnership aims to accelerate the development of Novartis’ broad portfolio of targeted cancer therapeutics and ultimately expand treatment options for patients.

“The comprehensive molecular assessment of Novartis’ Oncology clinical trial samples is expected to help to bring potentially lifesaving therapies to the right patients more quickly, and we expect that the wealth of molecular information will help fundamentally improve the way cancer is understood and treated,” said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and CEO, Foundation Medicine.

Pellini continued, “We are pleased to see our collaboration mature into a significant relationship between Foundation Medicine and Novartis.”

Foundation Medicine uses clinical-grade, next-generation sequencing to rapidly analyze hundreds of cancer-related genes from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor samples in a CLIA-certified environment.

Novartis plans to use these capabilities in an effort to align clinical trial enrollment and outcome analysis with the genomic profile of individual patient tumors to drive development of new cancer treatments.

Foundation Medicine also offers testing services to physicians and their patients through the company’s commercial product, FoundationOne™, which includes an interpretive report that matches detected genomic alterations with potential treatment options and clinical trials.

The company may develop additional diagnostic products resulting from the Novartis collaboration.