QIAGEN has announced it has received a worldwide license from The Johns Hopkins University for biomarkers that have been shown to play key roles in identifying patients who could benefit from novel immune-oncology (I-O) therapies in cancer treatment.
The agreement involves rights to genetic biomarkers to assess microsatellite instability (MSI) and mismatch repair (MMR) in all sample and cell types, and will enable QIAGEN – subject to its exercising certain option rights – to commercialize molecular testing solutions using next-generation sequencing to assess MSI and MMR status. Levels of MSI and MMR, along with tumor mutation burden (TMB), are important in identifying cancer patients who could benefit from certain types of I-O therapies, which offer a novel way to treat cancer by using drugs to target the body’s immune system to help fight cancer.