Pillar Biosciences, Inc. has entered into a strategic partnership with AstraZeneca to expand laboratory access to molecular testing, using rapid, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based liquid biopsy tumor profiling panels for detection of genetic cancer variants, with an initial focus on European markets and the UK.
The partnership aims to rapidly identify tumors with clinically actionable genomic alterations via liquid biopsy profiling and intends to support faster diagnostic testing by increasing the local availability of plasma-based tumor profiling at leading clinical laboratories.
The work will initially leverage Pillar Biosciences oncoReveal Core LBx, Essential LBx, and Fusion LBx research-use-only (RUO) liquid biopsy kitted NGS panels. Pillar’s oncoReveal Core LBx panel, which interrogates 104 genes in circulating cell-free tumor DNA (cfDNA), oncoReveal Essential LBx panel, which interrogates 34 genes in cfDNA,and oncoReveal Fusion LBx, which interrogates various fusion forms from 18 driver genes via circulating cell-free tumor RNA (cfRNA), can be performed by any laboratory, with a sample-to-report time in less than three days. Laboratories will be able to batch test both cfDNA and cfRNA samples from >22 patients on a single Illumina NextSeq run.
