Sysmex Inostics and Bayer HealthCare Collaborate to Develop Blood-based Companion Diagnostic Tests for Targeted Tumor Therapies

HAMBURG, Germany, October 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Sysmex Inostics, a subsidiary of Sysmex Corporation, today announced a master collaboration agreement with Bayer HealthCare for the development of companion diagnostics for targeted cancer therapies. The partnership pairs Sysmex Inostics' innovative blood-based companion diagnostic solutions with targeted anti-cancer agents developed by Bayer.

"We are pleased to partner with Bayer HealthCare, a global company with an extensive drug development expertise and a broadening oncology franchise, to advance new targeted therapies for cancer patients," said Frank Diehl, CSO of Sysmex Inostics. "With our innovative technology for blood-based companion diagnostics we will open up new possibilities in personalized medicine together with Bayer."

Companion diagnostic tests are designed to analyze the specific molecular characteristics of a patient's tumor to help guide treatment decisions. The tests will provide evidence which patients are more likely to respond to a particular anti-cancer agent. Under the master collaboration agreement, Sysmex Inostics will develop blood-based diagnostic tests based on its BEAMing technology. Sysmex Inostics BEAMing tests enable a very sensitive analysis of circulating tumor DNA shed into the blood stream from tumors which provides a non-invasive alternative to biopsies to obtain the mutational status of a patient's tumor. This so called "liquid biopsy" allows the selection of an appropriate therapeutic agent without the need of further surgeries or biopsies. Moreover, blood-based diagnostic DNA tests can be performed on patients where no tumor tissue is available.

"We are excited to collaborate with the team at Sysmex Inostics on the development of blood-based companion diagnostic tests for our novel targeted therapies in oncology," said Prof. Andreas Busch, Head of Global Drug Discovery and Member of the Executive Committee of Bayer HealthCare. "Blood-based DNA tests provide diagnostic options for cancer patients without tumor biopsies being necessary. With this collaboration, we continue to strengthen our engagement in the field of personalized medicine with the aim of developing innovative therapies for cancer patients."  

About Bayer HealthCare

The Bayer Group is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer HealthCare, a subgroup of Bayer AG with annual sales of EUR 18.6 billion (2012), is one of the world's leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry and is based in Leverkusen, Germany. The company combines the global activities of the Animal Health, Consumer Care, Medical Care and Pharmaceuticals divisions. Bayer HealthCare's aim is to discover, develop, manufacture and market products that will improve human and animal health worldwide. Bayer HealthCare has a global workforce of 55,300 employees (Dec 31, 2012) and is represented in more than 100 countries. More information at http://www.healthcare.bayer.com.

About Sysmex Inostics

Sysmex Inostics, a subsidiary of Sysmex Corporation, is a molecular diagnostic company whose core competency is mutation detection utilizing highly sensitive technologies such as Plasma-Sequencing and BEAMing. With BEAMing being one of the most sensitive and quantitative technologies available today for the detection of tumor specific somatic mutations in blood samples, Sysmex Inostics' BEAMing services are readily available to support clinical trials and research in oncology. Furthermore, Sysmex Inostics companion diagnostics (CDx) team offers services for the development of non-invasive plasma DNA based IVD tests supported by a growing network of partners to cover the entire IVD development process. In addition, BEAMing tests (OncoBEAM) are available through a CLIA certified laboratory for routine clinical analysis.

Sysmex Inostics' headquarters are located in Hamburg, Germany and Sysmex Inostics' Clinical Laboratory is located in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information on OncoBEAM blood testing and the BEAMing technology refer to http://www.sysmex-inostics.com or email info@sysmex-inostics.com.

Contact:

Friederike Lehmann
Sysmex Inostics GmbH
+49-(0)40-413383-90
lehmann@inostics.com