Ventana Medical Systems, a member of the Roche Group, has entered into a multi-year agreement with Bayer Pharma to develop companion diagnostics, with a focus on immunohistochemistry (IHC), across Bayer's portfolio of targeted therapy projects. The agreement focuses on the development of diagnostic tests for Bayer's biomarker targeted therapeutics from early discovery through commercialization.

Ventana will create an expert team with resources exclusively assigned to Bayer projects and will work on the development of companion diagnostic tests for targeted therapies in the Bayer development portfolio. The company will also offer its expertise in immunohistochemistry and the detection of various protein structures. 

This agreement extends an existing collaboration between the two companies from January 2012. Ventana entered into a strategic partnership with Bayer to develop a molecular companion diagnostic test intended to identify patients most likely to benefit from a novel Bayer antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). As part of the original collaboration, Ventana agreed to develop, manufacture, and commercialize a companion diagnostic test for one of Bayer’s ADCs.

Ventana’s diagnostic immunohistochemistry platform aims to analyze the expression level of certain tumor targets serving as biomarkers in clinical studies for patient selection.

“We are looking forward to continue our collaboration with the Ventana team to develop companion diagnostics that will help to select targeted therapeutics for cancer patients,” said Khusru Asadullah, M.D., vice president and head of global biomarkers at Bayer HealthCare.

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