
Adaptive Announces Multi-Year Partnership With BeiGene to Assess MRD With clonoSEQ in Blood Cancer Trials
11-8-23 (by: Scott Gleason) Adaptive Biotechnologies has announced a new multi-year global partnership with BeiGene to assess minimal residual disease (MRD) through the utilization of Adaptive’s clonoSEQ assay technology across BeiGene’s pipeline of treatments designed for patients with lymphoid malignancies. MRD evaluation is increasingly pivotal in clinical trials for lymphoid malignancies, offering an early gauge of treatment response and a potential endpoint for expediting the availability of novel therapies to patients. Adaptive’s clonoSEQ assay technology is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for MRD assessment in bone marrow from patients with multiple myeloma or B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), as well as blood or bone marrow from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
The assay technology has been incorporated into global, label-enabling studies for numerous therapies that have gained approval in recent years. For example, AbbVie, Genetech, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals have all used Adaptive Biotechnologies’ clonoSeq test for measuring MRD as a marker of treatment response across clinical trials for leukemia drugs.
Adaptive’s clonoSEQ assay leverages the company’s proprietary immune medicine platform to identify and quantify specific DNA sequences within malignant cells, enabling clinicians to assess and monitor MRD throughout and after treatment. The test can be used by physicians in predicting patient outcomes, monitoring treatment response over time, overseeing patients during remission, and anticipating potential relapses. Clinical practice guidelines recommend assessing MRD at multiple intervals during therapy to monitor response and predict patient outcomes. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) guidelines not that MRD, “Is a pivotal diagnostic tool with substantial implications for disease prognosis and the evaluation of novel treatments in leukemia, notably acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).”