NEW YORK – Becton Dickinson announced Thursday that it will collaborate with Quest Diagnostics on the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of flow cytometry-based companion diagnostics for cancer and other diseases.
Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.
The firms intend to provide pharma developers with "an end-to-end solution" for CDx, BD said in a statement, from exploratory panel development to manufacture and distribution of diagnostic kits cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Companion diagnostics for therapy selection typically use immunohistochemistry, fluorescence in situ hybridization, PCR, next-generation sequencing, and imaging, BD said. Flow cytometry, meanwhile, can rapidly analyze and sort individual cells to elucidate an individual's immune response and potentially provide insight into a patient's management.
"This strategic collaboration with BD will combine our expertise in developing and validating biomarkers and assays with BD's leadership in flow cytometry to offer a fully integrated solution on a larger scale," said William Finger, VP and general manager of pharma services for Quest Diagnostics.
BD launched the FACSDiscover S8 spectral flow cytometry platform in 2023 and debuted three- and four-laser additions to complement the five-laser instrument earlier this year. The system enables high-speed cell sorting using fluorescent and nonfluorescent paraments. In 2022, BD also inked a collaboration agreement with Laboratory Corporation of America to develop flow cytometry-based CDx.