GE Healthcare announced yesterday that its subsidiary, Clarient Diagnostic Services, Inc., and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will collaborate to create a network of clinical laboratories that will identify genetic mutations that are related to different tumor types.

"GSK recognized the need to improve both the consistency of access and the quality of companion diagnostic testing, and Clarient is in a position to fulfill that need by leveraging its expertise in oncology testing and quality management," Cindy Collins, CEO of Clarient, wrote to DOTmed News.

Right now there is a lot of variability in the access and quality of diagnostic testing, especially for targeted oncology therapies. The testing methods that are deployed by many individual laboratory providers around the world are not always standardized, according to Collins.
But this collaboration will try to standardize it by having all laboratories in the network run the same assay on the same platform and under the same quality management system.

Clarient will begin by using its expertise in pathology, genomics and clinical laboratory to certify laboratories and generate diagnostic data on metastatic and melanoma patients. The testing in the laboratory will start by focusing on over 70 mutations that have relevance to melanoma and potentially other types of cancer.

Clarient will provide laboratory and data analytics services to health care organizations around the world on a subscription basis. The laboratory service will allow pharmaceutical and other health care organizations to provide diagnostic testing in any market where the Clarient certified laboratories are located.

The organizations will also have access to customizable insights including geospatial analysis, aggregated epidemiological data, and identifying and matching potential patients to clinical trials through the data analytics service.

The first laboratories certified by Clarient are anticipated to be in operation in several countries sometime at the start of 2015.

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