Almac Diagnostic Services Partners with DNAnexus to Power Clinical Trial Assay Development

February 12, 2018

Craigavon, N.I., 12 February 2018 – Almac Diagnostic Services, a global precision medicine company, has selected Clinical Trial Solution (CTS), a product launched today by DNAnexus, the global leader in biomedical informatics and data management. Implementation of this product will enable Almac to streamline the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data in regulated clinical trials.

The DNAnexus cloud-based CTS enables the use of genomic and other -omic information in combination with trials data, to reduce the time and cost of clinical development, and improve trial results and patient care.

Almac Diagnostic Services has expertise in the development of biomarker assays for commercial partners across a wide range of technologies and has an extensive track-record in validating assays across key regulatory standards, including; CLIA, CLEP, CE-IVD and FDA.

“Genomic-based clinical trials are critical in identifying patient populations most likely to benefit from a targeted treatment,” said Dr Timothy Davison, VP of Data Sciences & Biostatistics, Almac Diagnostic Services. “The process of developing and validating a biomarker into a test fit for clinical delivery is complex. DNAnexus offers the industry’s most comprehensive security and privacy framework, which provides our global labs auditability, data immutability, and scalability to implement a streamlined integration of genome-based biomarker delivery in clinical trials.”

“The use of next-generation sequencing in clinical trials is on the rise, and we anticipate that the FDA will embrace these new clinical trial methodologies,” said Richard Daly, CEO of DNAnexus. “DNAnexus believes that the incorporation of genomic data into clinical trials will lead to more targeted therapies and improved companion diagnostics. Almac Diagnostic Services is a global leader in precision medicine and we’re excited to collaborate on bringing genomic-based targeted medicines to patients more quickly.”

Bringing a single oncology drug through FDA approval can take over a decade and cost more than $1 billion. By investing in NGS sequencing in early-stage clinical development, later phases can be optimized and de-risked through biomarker-driven participant selection and intervention guidance. The DNAnexus CTS combines secondary analysis, interpretation, and translational informatics solutions, on a GxP-compliant, quality managed, audit-friendly, cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service. The same compliant DNAnexus service powers the FDA’s precision FDA platform for advancing regulatory standards for NGS-based drugs and devices.

“Pharmaceutical companies and their research partners are looking for ways to incorporate human genome and microbiome-based insights into their clinical trial designs, and have been frustrated with the cost and time to deploy and operate GxP-compliant systems to manage high-throughput genomics data,” continued Richard Daly. “The DNAnexus Clinical Trial Solution enables our customers to rapidly integrate genomics into adaptive trial design and significantly improve outcomes, ensuring consistency and reproducibility of results across geographical regions and research partners.”

Deploying, qualifying, and validating bioinformatic tools for genomic data analysis, and operating GxP-compliant services, are specialized tasks that are required for discovery and use of genomics-based insights in clinical trials. The DNAnexus CTS enables biopharmaceutical companies to transition validated NGS pipelines from translational research into clinical development and, for approved drugs and devices, into clinical and companion diagnostics, all in compliance with HIPAA, CAP/CLIA, and GxP regulations.

For more information about Clinical Solutions and the DNAnexus Platform, please visit dnanexus.com/clinicaltrials

ENDS

About DNAnexus
DNAnexus, the global leader in biomedical informatics and data management, has created the global network for genomics and other biomedical data, operating in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (including China), South America, and Africa. The secure, scalable, and collaborative DNAnexus Platform helps thousands of researchers across a spectrum of industries – biopharmaceutical, bioagricultural, sequencing services, clinical diagnostics, government, and research consortia – accelerate their genomics programs globally. For more information on DNAnexus, please visit www.dnanexus.com or follow the company @DNAnexus.

About Almac Diagnostic Services
Almac Diagnostic Services is a global precision medicine company focused on the discovery, development and commercialisation of diagnostic tests including companion diagnostics. We partner with biopharma companies to provide solutions ranging from pre-clinical biomarker discovery to companion diagnostic development including regulatory submissions and commercialisation. We also facilitate biomarker clinical trial management and clinical test delivery from our CLIA-accredited lab. The tests developed at Almac Diagnostic Services have a wide range of applications including patient selection, and are utilised in phase I to phase III registrational clinical trials. For more information visit: almacgroup.com/diagnostics

About Almac Group
‘Partnering to Advance Human Health’
The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organisation that provides an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IXRS® technology (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

The international company is a privately owned organisation that has organically grown over almost 50 years and now employs close to 5600 highly skilled personnel. Almac is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland with operations in the UK, Ireland, across the US (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California) and in Asia (Singapore and Tokyo). To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

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