Sysmex Corporation, a world leader in clinical laboratory systemization and solutions, announced that its subsidiary Sysmex Inostics has signed master collaboration agreement with Bayer HealthCare for the development of companion diagnostics for targeted cancer therapies. The partnership pairs Sysmex Inostics’ innovative blood-based companion diagnostic solutions with targeted anti-cancer agents developed by Bayer.

“We are pleased to partner with Bayer HealthCare, a global company with an extensive drug development expertise and a broadening oncology franchise, to advance new targeted therapies for cancer patients,” said Frank Diehl, CSO of Sysmex Inostics. “With our innovative technology for blood-based companion diagnostics we will open up new possibilities in personalized medicine together with Bayer.”

Companion diagnostic tests are designed to analyze the specific molecular characteristics of a patient’s tumour to help guide treatment decisions.The tests provide evidence which patients are more likely to respond to a particular anti-cancer agent. Under the master collaboration agreement, Sysmex Inostics will develop blood-based diagnostic tests based on its BEAMing technology. Sysmex Inostics BEAMing tests enable a very sensitive analysis of circulating tumour DNA shed into the blood stream from tumours which provides a non-invasive alternative to biopsies to obtain the mutational status of a patient’s tumour. This so called “liquid biopsy” allows the selection of an appropriate therapeutic agent without the need of further surgeries or biopsies. Moreover, blood-based diagnostic DNA tests can be performed on patients where no tumour tissue is available.

“We are excited to collaborate with the team at Sysmex Inostics on the development of companion diagnostic tests for our investigational anti-cancer agents,” said Prof. Andreas Busch, Head of Global Drug Discovery and Member of the Executive Committee of Bayer HealthCare. “Blood-based DNA tests provide diagnostics options for cancer patients without tumour biopsies being necessary. With this collaboration, we continue to strengthen our engagement in the field of personalized medicine with the aim of developing innovative therapies for cancer patients.”

The Bayer Group is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer HealthCare, a subgroup of Bayer AG with annual sales of EUR 18.6 billion (2012), is one of the world’s leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry and is based in Leverkusen, Germany.

Sysmex Inostics, a subsidiary of Sysmex Corporation, is a molecular diagnostic company whose core competency is mutation detection utilizing highly sensitive technologies such as Plasma-Sequencing and BEAMing.