Germany’s Bayer and Foundation Medicine of the US have announced plans for a global collaboration on development and commercialization of NGS-based companion diagnostics.

The joint effort will focus on multiple oncology drug candidates and approved therapies developed by Bayer, while leveraging Foundation Medicine’s full portfolio of tests, including FoundationOneCDx.

First project will be to develop a companion diagnostic for Bayer’s Vitravki (Larotrectinib), the first and up to now only TRK inhibitor approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with TRK fusion cancer across all solid tumors. Larotrectinib is under review in other markets.

With the NGS-based companion diagnostic tests, researchers aim to unlock molecular information from each patient’s tumor genome to guide treatment decisions for cancer therapies.

 “The development of a companion diagnostic for Larotrectinib, and our broader collaboration with Foundation Medicine, is an important step forward toward expanding access to testing and identifying the right treatment options for patients with cancer,” said  Robert LaCaze, head of the Oncology strategic business unit at Bayer.

Explaining the rationale behind the decision to collaborate with Bayer, Cindy Perettie, Foundation Medicine’s CEO, said it is “imperative that patients receive broad comprehensive genomic profiling at initial diagnosis of late stage cancer to determine if they are eligible for these medicines.”