Strategic alliance between MolecularHealth and GATC Biotech

May 16, 2014 - PRLog -- Heidelberg/Constance — Today, MolecularHealth, a leading biomedical company focused on tumor analysis and tumor interpretation, and GATC Biotech, Europe’s leading service provider of Sanger and Next Generation sequencing, announced a strategic partnership. Integrating personalized medicine in day-to-day clinical work, as well as improving the therapy prospective of each individual cancer patient through qualified tumor analysis and interpretation is the goal of this partnership.

Personalized medicine, as a treatment concept enables fast and focused therapy decisions individually adapted to each patient. Sequencing of patient’s tumor DNA potentially reveals the individual mutation responsible for this specific cancer. Mutations may differ from one patient to another and significantly influencing therapeutic success. Molecular tumor profiling allows for a fully individualized cancer care approach adapted to each patient. The success of personalized medicine in cancer care is currently evaluated in several ongoing studies.

The strategic partnership of MolecularHealth and GATC Biotech builds on previous long-term collaboration. Due to the same understanding of data quality, data security and working manner both companies agreed to intensify their collaboration.

GATC Biotech ensures highest quality standards for routine exome sequencing as well as on-the-spot sequencing of genes known for their role in cancer (cancer panel). With long-term expertise, fully automated LIMS-controlled processing pipelines and a genome sequencing method certified for diagnostic use, GATC Biotech provides a solid base for MolecularHealth’s unique data analysis and interpretation platform technology.

Based on the gained DNA sequence, MolecularHealth transforms genetic data into clinically relevant information. This technology allows the identification of the safest and most efficient medicinal treatment option for each cancer patient. Bioinformatic mutation analysis is accomplished by TreatmentMAP™, software registered as a medical device. A proprietary database is used for the correlation of the patient’s tumor profile and the safest and most efficient cancer medicine or clinical study is chosen, supporting the attending physician in their treatment decision. Hence personalised medicine becomes reality.

Cancer genome sequencing of tumor DNA provides the basis for an individual tumor analysis of a particular patient. In the interest of the patient, the time between sampling and availability of the diagnostic findings should be kept as short as possible. This requires great care and makes high demands, not only to the laboratory, but also on logistics, which is why GATC Biotech was the obvious choice for a partnership. "We are pleased to benefit from GATC Biotech’s expertise in the field of genome sequencing." said Dr. Stephan Brock, CEO of MolecularHealth GmbH.

Peter Pohl, CEO and co-founder of GATC Biotech AG also expressed excitement about the strategic partnership "The partnership with an emerging innovative company such as MolecularHealth allows us to expand the potential of genome sequencing and thereby playing a leading role in the realisation of personalised medicine in the field of cancer diagnostics."

The strategic partnership includes all markets where TreatmentMAP™ will be available in Europe.

ABOUT MOLECULARHEALTH
MolecularHealth is a leading biomedical company transforming molecular data into actionable clinical information for the most efficient and safest cancer treatment options for each individual cancer patient. MolecularHealths proprietary software TreatmentMAP™ is the first registered medical product of its kind for the personalised cancer medicine in Europe.
TreatmentMAP™ generates an individual tumor analysis for each patient, and provides an interpretation of the clinical and genomic patient data in a clinical context supporting the attending physician in an individualised treatment decision.
MolecularHealth is managed by a multidisciplinary team of oncologists, scientists, businessman and IT experts with long-standing expertise in their fields. The company works in partnership with some of the world’s leading healthcare and information technology companies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and SAP AG.
The company is headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, the center of cancer research in Europe. U.S. headquarters, including a CLIA-certified NGS lab, is located in The Woodlands, Texas. Visit www.molecularhealth.com for more information and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/molecularhealth.

ABOUT GATC BIOTECH
GATC Biotech, a family-owned business, is Europe’s leading service provider of DNA and RNA sequencing. For over two decades, the company has offered sequencing and bioinformatics solutions from single samples up to large scale projects. During this time, GATC Biotech has sequenced more than six million samples, ten thousands of bacterial, plant and other whole genomes, as well as hundreds of whole human genomes. The company offers true multiplatform sequencing using all leading sequencing technologies in its own labs. Its headquarter in Constance, Germany houses its ISO 17025 certified Genome and Diagnostic Centre with focus on next and third generation sequencing. The European Custom Sequencing Centre located in Cologne, Germany focuses on Sanger sequencing and serves as the logistical hub within Europe. All laboratories have highly integrated and fully automated processing pipelines, ensuring full compliance with latest state-of-the-art quality standards. Please visit www.gatc-biotech.com for more information.