
Foundation Medicine Agrees to Tech Transfer with Sequanta Technologies to Support Clinical Trials for Oncology Medicines in China
Foundation Medicine, Inc. has announced the expansion of its long-standing partnership with Sequanta Technologies Co., Ltd. to provide genomic profiling services aimed at supporting clinical research and the development of oncology therapies in China. Sequanta is a leading multi-omics contract research organization and laboratory in the Chinese market. This collaboration has its roots dating back to 2014 when Foundation Medicine became Sequanta’s in-house laboratory, leading to the launch of FoundationOne® and FoundationOne®CDx in 2015 and 2018, respectively. The company’s are now planning to complete the tech transfer of genomic profiling tests, beginning with FoundationOne®Liquid CDx in November 2023, followed by FoundationOne CDx in March 2024.
China maintains partially closed foreign direct investment by outside technology companies. This means that foreign companies looking to operate in specific industries in China are often required to form joint ventures with local partners, like foundation with Sequanta. However, these joint ventures typically limit foreign companies from holding a controlling stake, effectively giving local firms access to their sensitive proprietary technology. Top of Form
FoundationOne Liquid CDx and FoundationOne CDx are tests capable of analyzing over 300 genes associated with cancer-related genomic alterations. Identifying these alterations in a patient’s cancer genome plays an important role in streamlining clinical trial enrollment and providing clinical insights that shape the course of research. In this partnership, Sequanta will serve as a laboratory partner to Foundation Medicine, responsible for conducting these tests in China using identical parameters employed across Foundation Medicine laboratories. This includes verification studies and subsequent concordance analysis to establish consistent performance across various sites.
Troy Schurr, Chief Biopharma Business Officer at Foundation Medicine, underscores the significance of this partnership, stating, “The tech transfer of FoundationOne Liquid CDx and FoundationOne CDx technologies to Sequanta represents a major step forward in helping provide a unified global registration approach to biopharmaceutical companies to support their global trials in China.” This initiative reflects Foundation Medicine’s steadfast commitment to advancing precision medicine on a global scale and exploring new avenues for collaboration with its biopharmaceutical partners.