NEW YORK – Qiagen highlighted its evolving plans to further expand its oncology portfolio at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting this week in Chicago, with plans to debut two new sample prep systems and a next-generation sequencing product developed under an expanded collaboration with Myriad Genetics in the coming year.
Nitin Sood, senior VP and head of product portfolio and innovation at Qiagen, said in an interview that the firm's oncology strategy takes advantage of its strengths across the research lab and clinical diagnostics workflow, from sample prep to high-throughput molecular analysis.
"Oncology is a big market for us, from research all the way to diagnostics and therapeutics," he said.
In sample prep, Qiagen expects to launch the QiaSymphony Connect focused on clinical liquid biopsy testing, with the ability to handle 10 milliliters of plasma, use prefilled reagents, and incorporate validated workflows for diagnostics. It will also have a 50 percent higher throughput compared to the standard QiaSymphony, the original legacy system which Sood said is already in use at oncology specialty labs like Natera.
Qiagen will also launch the benchtop QiaSprint system for research customers, Sood said, incorporating both a small footprint and a throughput of 96 samples in 30 minutes. Unlike the clinical system, the QiaSprint will have a "flexible workflow editor" that will allow oncology and other researchers to quickly adjust their protocols, he noted.
On the firm's all-in-one QiAcuity digital PCR system, the firm launched lentivirus products at AACR to support its biopharma customers developing CAR T therapies, as dPCR is used in quality control of every step. Called the QiAcuity RCL Quant Kit and the QiAcuity CGT dPCR assay, the products support QC for cell and gene therapy development and manufacturing.
The firm has also developed and launched 190 research-use assays as part of its GeneGlobe program and will launch another 100 or more this year, Sood said.
Qiagen also highlighted its QIAseq xHYB CGP panel at AACR. This comprehensive genomic profiling panel includes more than 700 genes covering somatic mutations, copy number variations, and gene fusions, Sood said, and it is intended to be paired with Qiagen's informatics solution, QCI Interpret. The software includes 270,000 expertly curated variants and can match patients to therapies and to local clinical trials while also providing links to relevant scientific literature.
"The combination of our NGS kit and software really is a very powerful solution for diagnostic labs that are using NGS in cancer," Sood said.
At AACR on Monday, scientists from Myriad Genetics presented proof-of-concept data from matched tumor and plasma samples from stage III/IV prostate and ovarian cancer patients tested using the new CGP panel.
And, Qiagen has also expanded a companion diagnostics development master collaboration agreement forged with Myriad Genetics recently to include new applications. Last year, the firms agreed to develop a kit for homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) status.
The panel will be based on Myriad's MyChoice CDx biomarkers and deploy Qiagen's NGS and bioinformatics platforms.
Brian Dugan, Qiagen's senior director and head of global genomics, said the collaboration between the two firms "represents a powerful convergence of scientific excellence and global reach," adding that it also opens new doors for decentralized access to HRD testing.
"This is a major step forward in enabling more precise, timely, and cost-effective treatment decisions in oncology," Dugan said, noting as well that HRD status plays a particularly critical role in ovarian cancer.
Patrick Burke, executive VP of strategy and innovation at Myriad Genetics, meanwhile, said that his firm has a strong track record of successfully supporting the completion of clinical trials and obtaining single-site premarket approvals. Together with Qiagen's sample prep, PCR, dPCR, NGS, and QDI platforms, these factors will allow pharma partners to access innovative services and products, Burke said, which in turn "may enable the development and commercialization of proprietary cancer tests, and distributable companion diagnostic test kits."
In addition, Qiagen also aims to build on an existing partnership with Element Biosciences to develop an expanded comprehensive genomic profiling panel called QiaSeq xHYB CGP that will be incorporated with Element’s Aviti platform and Trinity workflow.
This updated product is expected by late 2025 and is intended to increase the speed and cost-effectiveness of cancer genomic profiling while also reducing hands-on time and equipment requirements.
The firm also expects to add to the 35 companion diagnostics development agreements it has already signed, many of which are oncology-related, Sood said.
Finally, Qiagen will introduce a free version of its QDI Human Somatic Mutation Database to make genomic insights more accessible to the global research community.
"We believe that oncology will continue to be a growth driver as novel diagnostics are gaining momentum and new drugs are coming out that require precision medicine," Sood said.
"We're investing heavily in sample extraction, digital PCR, software, and NGS to serve oncology customers in multiple market segments and at multiple parts of the workflow," Sood said.