Industry News: Ventana Announces Collaboration to Develop Companion Diagnostics for ImmunoGen's Targeted Anticancer Agents

Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Ventana), a member of the Roche Group has announced it has entered into an agreement with ImmunoGen, Inc. to collaborate on the development of biomarker assays and a companion diagnostic immunohistochemistry (IHC) test for one or more of ImmunoGen’s product candidates. Under this agreement, the companies have created an initial test for folate receptor alpha (FRα, also known as folate receptor 1, or FOL1) that is being used in early trials of IMGN853, ImmunoGen’s FRα-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Cancers that highly express FRα include epithelial ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, and types of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC).

The goal of the collaboration is to leverage Ventana’s expertise in companion diagnostics development, from prototyping through regulatory approval and commercialization, to identify specific patient populations for ImmunoGen’s bio-target directed therapies.

“Companion diagnostic tests play a central role in delivering on the promise of personalized healthcare,” said Doug Ward, Vice President, Ventana Companion Diagnostics. “We’re very pleased that this agreement with ImmunoGen should further expand our menu of companion diagnostic test offerings for our pharma and biotech collaborators to benefit patients.”

“Our antibody-drug conjugate experimental therapies are designed to hone in on specific targets found on patients’ cancer cells,” commented Dr. Charles Morris, EVP and Chief Development Officer, ImmunoGen, Inc. “Companion diagnostics can play an important role in ensuring the patients receiving our agents are ones with the targets and thus the patients most likely to benefit from the treatment. Having this collaboration with Ventana in place now helps us make sure the right patients are receiving IMGN853 during its development.”

This pharma collaboration is one of dozens currently underway where the Ventana Companion Diagnostics team is delivering patient stratifying diagnostic tools that help identify those individuals who are most likely to benefit from specific treatments. In addition to ImmunoGen, Ventana has announced collaborations with Bayer, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Takeda’s Millennium unit, Genmab, Incyte, MedImmune and more. Since 2002, the company has worked with more than 45 biopharmaceutical partners and is currently engaged in more than 180 collaborative projects to develop and commercialize companion diagnostics globally.