GE and Lilly ink cancer diagnostics linkup
In a sign of the accelerating convergence between treatments and diagnostics GE and Eli Lilly have announced a collaboration to develop in vitro diagnostic assays that may help predict cancer treatment response to targeted therapies.
"The collaboration is a major play into GE Healthcare's Early Health vision that we recently reviewed. The alliance also represents an interesting move by two companies each with a strong culture of collaboration but coming, as they do, at this space from very different scientific and technological directions," commented Silico's Dr Lara Marks.
The agreement will provide GE with access to clinical tissue samples from unidentified patients enrolled in Lilly's clinical trials. Lilly will have access to GE's technologies in automated tissue-based image analysis and molecular reagents. These tools are expected to be used during drug development to aid Lilly in evaluating the effectiveness of their drug candidates and potentially select patients for future trials. In addition to helping Lilly identify patients for future trials, the diagnostic tools GE is providing have the potential to reduce the time and cost of cancer drug development.
In July 2007 GE pulled out of a $8 billion deal to buy Abbott's laboratory-testing unit and blood-analysis division stating that agreement about the final terms could not be reached. The purchase was designed to expand GE's footprint in the in vitro diagnostics space.
Similar articles
Tykerb's implications for partnerships
Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals cuts staff by 25%
Public-private partnerships for drug development: An emerging trend or special cases?
TAGS: Cancer Collaboration Diagnostics GE Lilly || Post to del.icio.us 
|| Mail us about this analysis 
