NEW YORK – European diagnostics firm Unilabs and Ambry Genetics said Thursday that they have entered an exclusive partnership to provide genetic testing services for government-sponsored and biopharma companies conducting international clinical trials and other research.
Under the agreement, Ambry will be able to take advantage of Unilabs' genomic lab services and variant interpretation capabilities in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East — regions where Ambry does not have a physical presence.
Ambry will, in turn, provide Unilabs with variant assessment services and, in the future, its CARE (comprehensive assessment risk and education) program — a suite of digital health tools that can be used to identify patients who qualify for genetic testing, provide patient education, facilitate genetic test ordering and result reporting, and connect patients to genetic counseling.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to Christian Rebhan, Unilabs' chief medical officer, the Geneva-based company will be able to offer biopharma customers a test menu of more than 4,000 genetic tests alongside other clinical laboratory, radiology, and digital pathology services.
"We want to help global biopharma companies find the right patient at the right time for their trials and therapies around the world," Ambry CEO Tom Schoenherr said in a statement. "Through our partnership with Unilabs, we will be able to provide biopharma companies the support they need to develop new therapies faster and more efficiently and serve physicians, patients, and government programs locally."
In combination with its other partnerships, Aliso Viejo, California-based Ambry provides genetic testing services to 30 countries through its local global lab network. It is a subsidiary of Realm IDx, formerly Konica Minolta Precision Medicine.