U.K.-based genomic data analysis company Congenica, which has focused its efforts to date on rare disease and inherited cancer, announced this week that it will collaborate with precision oncology company GenomOncology to develop a CE-IVD oncology clinical decision support system.
For the development of the new clinical tool, Congenica will incorporate GenomOncology’s precision oncology datasets, which includes annotations and ontologies, and also includes curated public data, licensed data with other proprietary cancer data. In all, these data sources will provide greater access for Congenica to precision oncology information collected from the U.S., Europe, the U.K., and other regions around the world.
“This collaboration signifies the expansion of Congenica’s clinical decision support (CDS) platform into oncology. Our novel product offers a fully automated future-proof end-to-end solution that unlocks the full potential of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in the clinical oncology space,” said Alistair Johnston, chief professional services officer of Congenica in a press release. “GenomOncology brings extensive experience in precision oncology care, and its platform has been developed specifically to deliver clinical informatics solutions for cancer. We look forward to working with GenomOncology to further drive precision medicine, delivering high quality patient care and shaping the future of human health.”
For GenomOncology, partnering with Congenica will help it move a proven data analysis platform into the clinical setting. Earlier this summer, the company partnered with molecular diagnostic company Personalis for variant interpretation of its NeXT Personal assay for molecular residual disease (MRD) detection. It also announced in June that it was bolstering its existing demographic, biomarker, and disease-driven data to include prior intervention eligibility criteria to improve its drug and clinical trial matching capabilities by broadening the information about each patient’s treatment history.
The current deal with Congenica should help the company’s capabilities get much broader exposure than they have to date.
“Our partnership with Congenica enables us to expand opportunities for precision oncology care at the global level. The extensive information available within the GenomOncology Precision Oncology Platform, combined with the capabilities of the Congenica Clinical Decision Support Platform, will give clinicians and researchers the knowledge needed to provide their patients with the most appropriate care opportunities,” said Brad Wertz, GenomOncology CEO.
For Congenica, which has made its mark for the development of its rare disease genome interpretation platform, adding the GenomOncology capabilities will accelerate its plans to be a player in oncology clinical decision support. Moving from the research setting to the clinical setting was also fast-tracked for the company in July 2021 when its genomic interpretation software became CE marked under the In Vitro Diagnostics Directive. At the time, the CE mark allowed Congenica to use its genomic analysis tools to be used for the clinical diagnosis of patients with rare hereditary genomic disorders.
“This is a significant milestone for Congenica as we expand into new markets as part of the ongoing international rollout of our software platform,” noted Congenica CEO David Atkins last July. “With the CE mark designation, our customers can now use our product for the diagnosis of genetic diseases as part of standard care, bringing us closer to our vision of genomic medicine being routinely incorporated into clinical practice at a global scale.”