Qiagen and Lilly Ink Third Co-Development Program

Pharma giant Eli Lilly is partnering with German medical test maker Qiagen to develop a third anticancer compound and companion diagnostic. The current collaboration builds on the companies’ past joint work and on a master collaboration agreement signed in February.

Qiagen spokesman Przemek Jedrysik declined to elaborate on the nature of the companion test and the compound, or on a timeline for U.S. regulatory approval.

The partnership extends back to 2009, with work resulted in a 2011 premarket submission for Qiagen’s therascreen KRAS RGQ PCR kit in conjunction with Lilly’s Erbitux (cetuximab). In 2011, the companies signed a second agreement to work on a JAK2 gene test for certain blood cancers.

The therascreen/Erbitux pairing won FDA premarket approval in July 2012. It is also marketed in the EU and Japan. — Lena Freund

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