GE Healthcare has announced an agreement between its affiliate, Clarient Diagnostic Services, Inc., (Clarient) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The collaboration aims to improve access to diagnostic testing for cancer patients by establishing a network of clinical laboratories to identify genetic mutations associated with different tumor types. The collaboration will enable GE to develop a broader laboratory and data analytics service that will foster better efficiency in the healthcare market related to oncology precision medicine. This will be made available as a subscription-based service and operated by GE Healthcare.
Under terms of the agreement with GSK, GE Healthcare, through Clarient, will initially use its clinical laboratory, pathology, and genomics expertise to certify laboratories and generate diagnostic data on metastatic melanoma patients. The first Clarient-certified laboratories to initiate this work are expected to be operational in several countries in early 2015.
Laboratory testing will initially focus on more than 70 mutations relevant to melanoma, including BRAF V600E and V600K, with the opportunity to expand testing beyond melanoma into other tumor types, as the network of clinical laboratories develops.
Clarient’s laboratory and data analytics service will be available to other healthcare organizations worldwide through the subscription service, which is expected to be available next year. The laboratory service, which is standardized, will enable pharmaceutical and other healthcare organizations to have the ability to offer diagnostic testing in any market where Clarient-certified laboratories exist. The data analytics service can also provide customizable insights, and its possible uses include geospatial analysis, provision of aggregated epidemiological data, and the identification and matching of potential patients to clinical trials. Learn more about products and services offered by GE Healthcare.
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