MDxHealth and HistoGeneX launched a collaboration that will combine the former’s epigenetic technologies with the latter’s pharmacodiagnostic services to provide integrated molecular diagnostic testing to pharmaceutical companies and oncologists, the companies said today.
HistoGeneX’ laboratory in Belgium will perform MGMT service testing on behalf of MDxHealth’s current and future clients as part of the collaboration, the value of which was not disclosed.
HistoGeneX is a molecular pathology company offering a wide range of histology, pathology, and molecular diagnostic services for pharmaceutical and hospital clients, including biobanking capabilities, clinical trial diagnostics and research services. HistoGeneX CEO Mark Kockx, M.D., Ph.D., said in a statement that his company’s collaboration with MDxHealth “allows us to introduce epigenetic testing technologies to our pharmaceutical and oncology clients, further expanding our molecular capabilities and menu.”
MDxHealth develops and commercializes advanced epigenetic tests for cancer assessment and personalized treatment of patients. MDxHealth’s MGMT gene test determines the methylation status of the MGMT gene in tumor tissue, thus serving as a predictive assay for treating brain cancer. The test is designed to benefit developers of brain cancer drugs since they can use it to assess which cancer patients are less likely to respond to the traditional drug regime of alkylating agents, then target new treatments to those patients.
The company also offers its PharmacoMDx-branded services, which use next-generation and deep sequencing technologies toward discovery of individualized epigenetic-based diagnostic and personalized therapeutic products. The collaboration with HistoGeneX will expand PharmacoMDx globally as well as expand on MDxHealth’s biomarker discovery program at the Center of Pharmaco (epi)Genomics, a joint venture with Ghent University.
“Combining (HistoGeneX’) Belgium-based CLIA certified laboratory services and expansive test menu with our U.S.-based CLIA laboratory and next-gen epigenetic capabilities, will enable both organizations to leverage our respective networks, and grow our customer base,” MDxHealth CEO Jan Groen, Ph.D., said in the statement.