NEW YORK - Illumina announced on Wednesday at the World CDx Summit in London that it has forged a long-term strategic collaboration with Janssen Biotech to accelerate the development of precision medicines.
"This is the first of what we expect will be many pharmaceutical strategic partnerships as the industry leverages the power of Illumina to create precision medicine at scale," said Illumina Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer Joydeep Goswami in a statement posted on LinkedIn.
The collaboration aims to utilize Illumina's portfolio of resources, including AI-based genome interpretation tools, whole-genome sequencing, and multiomic analysis services, according to the company.
As part of the partnership, Illumina and Janssen will codevelop CDx programs on Illumina's TruSight Oncology Comprehensive assay, a single test that assesses multiple tumor genes and biomarkers in a patient's cancer. The assay obtained the CE mark in March and has initially been launched in Europe.
The companies also plan to explore using Illumina's technologies to develop a discovery engine for new drug and biomarker targets.
The collaboration indicates "a strategic shift" in the way Illumina endeavors to work with pharma partners to enable solutions from drug target discovery, early screening, and therapy selection to monitoring, an Illumina spokesperson said in an email.
"Precision medicine is a key component of pharma's R&D strategy, and Illumina stands ready to support the development of precision diagnostics through our best-in-class portfolio of products across the oncology care continuum," Goswami said.