Qiagen and Eli Lilly have teamed up to develop and commercialize companion diagnostics for pairing with Lilly investigational and approved medicines across all therapeutic areas. The agreement reportedly provides a framework for Lilly and Qiagen to collaborate on future projects across all of Lilly’s therapeutic areas aimed at bringing to market Lilly medicines paired with Qiagen diagnostics.

“Tailored therapies are a key component of Lilly’s strategy of providing improved outcomes for individual patients,” said Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., vp, tailored therapeutics at Lilly, and CEO of Lilly subsidiary Avid Radiopharmaceuticals. “By working with partners like Qiagen, we are advancing a number of tailored therapeutics in an effort to target the right medicine to the right patient.”

“We have expanded this relationship with Lilly as a result of our ongoing work together,” said Ulrich Schriek, Ph.D., svp, global business development of Qiagen. “This agreement lays the groundwork for potential future projects with Lilly in various therapeutic areas and enables significant efficiencies for future development programs by standardizing interfaces and processes between our organizations.”

Qiagen and Lilly have previously collaborated on companion diagnostics designed to run on Qiagen’s Rotor-Gene Q system, a component of the QIAsymphony family of automated instruments. Qiagen’s strategy is to develop FDA-approved diagnostics in the U.S. for use on this platform. Qiagen has also teamed up with Pfizer to develop a companion diagnostic for use alongside Pfizer’s investigational compound for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, dacomitinib (PF-00299804). 

Qiagen is expanding its pipeline of tests for biomarkers and intends to submit several companion diagnostics for U.S. regulatory approval. Last month, Qiagen announced submission of its therascreen® EGFR RGQ PCR Kit test to the FDA as a proposed companion diagnostic to guide treatment with a new investigational oncology compound developed by Boehringer Ingelheim. Qiagen says it is currently engaged in more than 15 projects with leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies to co-develop and market companion diagnostics.

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