Roche, Freenome Form Global Partnership for Cancer Detection Technology

Freenome, an early cancer detection company developing blood-based screening tests, announced a strategic collaboration agreement with Roche to commercialize Freenome's cancer screening technology in international markets. In addition, Freenome will evaluate Roche's forthcoming Sequencing by Expansion (SBX) technology for future development applications.

Roche is acquiring exclusive ex-U.S. rights to develop "kitted" tests, which involve packaging the software and assay to enable decentralized test processing and analysis, without a large, centralized processing lab. Roche is the global leader in decentralized testing, and this partnership will accelerate the availability of Freenome's tests in certain ex-U.S. markets. Freenome retains rights to ex-U.S. centralized testing as well as all U.S. rights, subject to its pre-existing license to Exact Sciences.

In addition to the companies' ongoing R&D collaboration to leverage Roche's Elecsys technology for protein and other multiomic analysis, the companies will work together to leverage the SBX technology to enhance Freenome's cell-free DNA (cfDNA) cancer screening tests. Freenome will also gain access to Roche plasma sample cohorts that will help accelerate development of personalized screening tests for multiple types of cancer, including lung cancer.

"We are delighted to deepen our R&D partnership with Roche to enhance our multiomic blood-based cancer screening platform and accelerate our test pipeline," said Aaron Elliott, Ph.D., Freenome chief executive officer. "Combining our technology with Roche's expertise in kit development and its footprint outside the United States will enable us to extend our reach globally and help more patients."

"This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to blood-based early cancer detection, which has the potential to transform disease management. Furthermore, it represents an example of our intent to establish high-impact clinical applications for our groundbreaking sequencing by expansion technology," added Matt Sause, chief executive officer of Roche Diagnostics.