In supergroup-style, a trio of heavyweights spanning medtech, healthcare and pharma are teaming up to improve access to comprehensive cancer diagnostics.
Sophia Genetics has tapped in AstraZeneca and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to help bring MSK’s blood- and tumor-scanning sequencing tests to more hospitals and patients around the world—the results of which will then bolster Sophia’s compendium of health data that can be used to fuel the development of future cancer treatments. The financial terms of the triumvirate weren’t disclosed.
The collaboration will center around Sophia’s data-driven medicine platform, which uses machine learning and other artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze patients’ clinical and biological data—including the results of genomic sequencing panels—to look for known variants associated with certain diseases.
The platform also compiles all of those inputted data in a single location, where doctors and researchers can sift through the information and apply AI algorithms to look for patterns and dive more deeply into the biology of specific diseases to inform future therapeutics and treatment plans.
Under the terms of their team-up, healthcare institutions around the world will have access to MSK’s tumor sequencing tests via Sophia's platform. The tests include MSK-IMPACT, which looks for 468 cancer-associated genetic mutations and changes in a solid tumor sample, and the MSK-ACCESS blood test, which homes in on the cell-free DNA found throughout the body, sequencing 129 genes selected from the MSK-IMPACT panel to better understand the genomic makeup of a tumor.
AstraZeneca, meanwhile, will contribute the breadth of its global presence to help get the tests into as many hands as possible, with a specific focus on bringing especially underserved regions into the resulting decentralized cancer testing network.
“The power of a decentralized network like the Sophia DDM platform is that diverse data inputs are continuously added to the network to fuel and teach our artificial intelligence algorithms, helping to produce stronger data outputs each time,” Jurgi Camblong, Ph.D., Sophia’s CEO and co-founder, said in Wednesday’s announcement unveiling the partnership.
“The diverse data that will be unlocked through the partnership between Sophia Genetics, AstraZeneca and MSK will undoubtedly contribute to the collective intelligence needed on a global scale to revolutionize the future of cancer research and treatment,” Camblong added.
Sophia will begin making the MSK tests available to healthcare providers through the DDM platform before the end of this year, according to the release.
The new collaboration builds on Sophia’s existing ties with both AstraZeneca and MSK. Earlier this year, the software developer inked a deal with the U.K. pharma to apply the DDM platform technology to AstraZeneca’s clinical trials.
Just a few months before, in January, Sophia laid down the roots of the newly announced partnership when it disclosed an “agreement” with MSK that would allow the cancer center’s tests to be offered through and powered by the DDM platform. At the time, Sophia said it would help tailor the MSK-ACCESS test to its software, while also building out a new analytics platform to dig more deeply into MSK’s massive stockpiles of precision oncology data.