Qiagen and Lilly to collaborate on the development of companion diagnostics

Qiagen has entered into a master collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly and Company for the development and commercialisation of companion diagnostics for pairing with Lilly investigational and approved medicines across all therapeutic areas. Companion diagnostics unlock a patient’s molecular information in order to guide treatment decisions for specific cancers or other diseases.

The agreement builds on Qiagen and Lilly’s past work together and provides a framework for them to collaborate on future projects aimed at bringing to market Lilly medicines paired with Qiagen diagnostics. It also further underscores Qiagen’s leading position in partnering with global pharmaceutical companies to deliver the benefits of personalised medicine to patients and healthcare providers.

“By working with partners like Qiagen, we are advancing a number of tailored therapeutics in an effort to target the right medicine to the right patient,” said Dr Daniel Skovronsky, vice president, tailored therapeutics, Lilly. “This collaboration with Qiagen extends our capabilities to more quickly and cost-effectively bring innovative new medicines, alongside advanced diagnostics, to patients worldwide who are waiting.”

“We have expanded this relationship with Lilly as a result of our ongoing work together,” said Dr Ulrich Schriek, Senior Vice President Global Business Development, Qiagen. “This agreement lays the groundwork for potential future projects with Lilly in various therapeutic areas and enables significant efficiencies for future development programs by standardising interfaces and processes between our organisations.”

Qiagen is at the forefront globally in developing and validating personalised healthcare tests that provide physicians with genomic information on each patient to guide the selection of medicines in treating cancer and other diseases. The company is engaged in more than 15 projects with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to co-develop and market companion diagnostics.

Qiagen and Lilly have previously collaborated on companion diagnostics designed to run on Qiagen’s Rotor-Gene Q system, a component of the QIAsymphony family of automated instruments, which is changing laboratory workflows. Qiagen’s strategy is to develop FDA-approved diagnostics in the United States for use on this platform.