Myriad announces commercial agreement with RainDance Technologies

SALT LAKE CITY—Myriad Genetics and Lexington, Mass.-basedRainDance Technologies, a company that specializes in digital biology withdroplet-based technology, have announced the establishment of a new commercialagreement. Under this deal, Myriad will adopt RainDance's ThunderStorm TargetEnrichment System for Myriad's next-generation sequencing-based HereditaryCancer Panel (HCP) test. In conjunction with the commercial agreement, the twocompanies have also signed a multi-year supply agreement under which RainDancewill provide Myriad with ThunderStorm systems, reagents, gene panels andconsumables.

"Myriad's selection of our ThunderStorm System for their HCPtest, one of the most significant commercial opportunities in their productportfolio, validates our product differentiation and innovative technology withone of the most exacting clinical sequencing customers in the world," RoopomBanerjee, president and CEO of RainDance, said in a press release. "The Myriadrelationship builds on our proven track record with more than 70 major geneticand translational research labs worldwide. With our proprietary platform,Myriad is establishing a new industry standard for next-generation sequencingof cancer and inherited disease."

The ThunderStorm system from RainDance uses a proprietarysingle-molecule droplet technology for sequence enrichment, which providesusers with the ability to target up to 20,000 regions of the genome with anycommercially available next-generation sequencing platforms. Myriad is seekingto integrate RainDance's technology into its own next-generation HCP test,which can be used to assess highly significant genes that are known to playpivotal roles in inherited cancer risk.

"We are excited to announce this strategic relationship withRainDance Technologies as it marks an important milestone in our preparationfor the future launch of our next-generation HCP test," Mark Capone, presidentof Myriad Genetics Laboratories, commented in a statement. "The ThunderStormSystem offers Myriad unparalleled genomic coverage, the ability to detect largegene rearrangements, workflow benefits and a favorable cost profile, all ofwhich have been critical in overcoming the challenges associated with creatingcontent-rich next-generation sequencing gene panels suitable for ahigh-throughput commercial laboratory."

The agreement comes just under a month after Myriadannounced a commercial partnership with PharmaMar, a leading developer ofmarine-derived drugs. Per the agreement, Myriad will conduct homologousrecombination deficiency (HRD) testing on patients enrolled in PharmaMar'sPhase II clinical study of PM1183, a drug candidate that causes double-strandedDNA breaks that lead to apoptosis, or cell death. The partners hope that byexamining HRD status in patients treated with PM1183 in the study, they will beable to learn more about the connection between HRD status and PM1183 response.No financial details for the agreement were disclosed.

SOURCE: Myriad press release