New Collaboration to Dramatically Expand Therapeutic Clinical Trial Access for Cancer Patients Across the United States

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts and SPARTANBURG, South Carolina, May 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

The Guardian Research Network and Molecular Health will Provide Cancer Patients with Personalized Clinical Decision Support 

The Guardian Research Network and Molecular Health have announced a collaboration designed to provide therapeutic clinical trial access and molecular diagnostic decision support to the majority of cancer patients living in U.S. communities.

The Guardian Research Network will collaborate with Molecular Health to harness the power of big data and sophisticated molecular testing to identify cohorts from hundreds of thousands of patients to enable 'accrual on demand' for novel cancer trials. This approach will ensure site selection efficiency and dramatically reduce the time to complete a clinical trial.

Molecular Health CEO Lutz Voelker said, "Working with Molecular Health, Guardian Research Network physicians will be able to provide their patients with the right drugs, in the right combinations, targeting the drivers of every disease mechanism."

Molecular Health has spent more than a decade developing a precision medicine data warehouse and clinical interpretation technologies that relate identified genetic alterations to both approved and experimental drug therapies.

"We are excited to partner with the Guardian Research Network to rapidly identify molecular subpopulations of patients who might benefit from a specific clinical trial," Voelker added.

The Guardian Research Network is forming a nationwide consortium of large community-based health systems that will utilize Molecular Health's TreatmentMAP(TM) 613 gene molecular profile and clinical decision support system as its preferred platform. The Guardian Research Network will also use Molecular Health's InsightMAP(TM) and OutcomesMAP(TM) products as underlying technology to support clinical trial matching, patient stratification and cohort analytics.

"The vast majority of Americans have had little access to sophisticated genomic profiling or to leading edge clinical trial drugs that offer the best chance for cure, until now," said Timothy Yeatman, MD, President of the Guardian Research Network.

Currently only those cancer patients that are able to travel to tertiary centers can gain access to the majority of novel drug trials.

"We will look back on this innovation in a few years and ask why we hadn't done it much sooner - it will be a true game changer for Pharma, Contract Research Organizations and others who need a new model to dramatically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the clinical trials process," Dr. Yeatman added.

Patients, physicians, hospitals, along with pharmaceutical, diagnostic and device companies, will all benefit from this aligned, innovative effort that will democratize clinical trial access and greatly accelerate drug, device and diagnostic development. The Guardian Research Network continues to invite community health systems with an aligned focus in cancer care to join this rapidly expanding consortium (see contact information below).

About the GUARDIAN RESEARCH NETWORK  

The Guardian Research Network is forming a nationwide consortium of community health systems that have decided to aggregate hundreds of thousands of their patients in one database to rapidly identify molecularly and clinically defined subpopulations to support targeted clinical trials. Enabled by Electronic Medical Records, the Guardian Research Network has constructed a central database allowing real-time data streams of patient clinical information, including labs, drug data, physician notes, images, prognosis, pathology, demographics and genetic information from the Guardian Research Network partner health systems to be stored, annotated and queried. The goal of the Guardian Research Network is to dramatically increase the availability of clinical trial access in the community, allowing patients to stay in their communities and receive the best drugs, while at the same time revolutionizing the drug development process. The Guardian Research Network was founded in late 2014 by Gibbs Cancer Center and the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, Spartanburg, SC. To learn more please visit: http://www.guardianresearch.org .

About MOLECULAR HEALTH  

Molecular Health is a leading biomedical company that is transforming molecular data and medical knowledge into actionable clinical information for more efficient and safe cancer treatment options for each individual cancer patient. In the U.S., Molecular Health's TreatmentMAP(TM) is an end-to-end laboratory test grounded in next-generation sequencing technology. TreatmentMAP(TM) generates an individualized tumor analysis for every patient and provides an interpretation of genomic patient data in a clinical context. Molecular Health is an international company with its headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany and a laboratory and support center in Greater Houston, Texas and its U.S. corporate office in Cambridge, MA. To learn more, please visit: http://www.molecularhealth.com .

For More Information
Guardian Research Network: Kristin Lacey, +1-864-560-1059, klacey@guardianresearch.org
Molecular Health:
North America:    Mark Rodgers: +1-832-247-3068 mark.rodgers@molecularhealth.com
Europe / ROW: Rudi Schmidt: +491716050043 media@molecularhealth.com