Molecular diagnostics company Biocept announced today it will collaborate with Shilpa Gupta, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota to observe the performance of the company’s liquid biopsy platform to detect the expression of PD-L1 and androgen receptor (AR) in patients diagnosed with bladder and prostate cancers. Biocept’s Target Selector™ platform…

Developers of genetic tests marketed wholly or partially direct to consumers (DTC) initially looked to selling tests for growth, then to monetizing data collected from those tests. Recent announcements, however, suggest a third monetization model for personal genetics—applying tests and their data to research and clinical studies. Credence Research projects…

NeoGenomics said today it has agreed to acquire Clarient and its wholly-owned subsidiary Clarient Diagnostic Services from GE Healthcare. The deal, valued at up to $275.2 million, is intended to create a larger and broader provider of precision oncology diagnostics. NeoGenomics said the acquisition will enable it to expand its…

By declaring unpatentable an isolated nucleic acid containing the breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1, Australia’s High Court used different legal reasoning than the landmark, two-year-old U.S. Supreme Court decision on gene patentability, in order to arrive at a similar conclusion. The Australian court on October 7 ruled invalid…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a draft local coverage determination (LCD) allowing limited coverage for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing, both individually and as part of multi-gene panels. According to the draft, BRCA tests will not be covered unless they have undergone a technical assessment…

There are huge benefits to genomic tumor assessment, both for better treatment now, and later, if first-line treatments fail. But I don’t think many cancer patients—and even some physicians—fully understand how important tumor sequencing can be to successful cancer treatment. Yet. This is not surprising. Outside of a few tests…