GE Healthcare and Eli Lilly announce cancer research collaboration

GE Healthcare and Eli Lilly announce cancer research collaboration

Waukesha, Wis.GE Healthcare and GE Global Research, two units of General Electric Co., have entered into a three-year collaborative research agreement with Eli Lilly and Co. to develop in vitro diagnostic assays for cancer treatment. The assays would be used to predict the response of cancer treatment to targeted therapies.
The agreement is an attempt to leverage complementary work at Eli Lilly and GE Healthcare. Lilly is developing targeted cancer therapeutics, while GE is developing advanced, tissue-based assays and image-analysis tools that can measure multiple biological pathways for cancer drugs.
In collaboration, the companies hope to discover important protein and gene signatures that will predict the likelihood that a medication will be effective in treating certain cancers. Once identified, the signatures can then be used to pre-select patients who are good candidates for the targeted therapy.
Dr. Michael Montalto, head of molecular imaging and diagnostics advanced technologies for GE Global Research, said the co-development of diagnostics and therapeutics is part of GE Healthcare’s “Early Health” model of care. The model emphasizes prevention, pre-disease detection, and early diagnosis.
GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Co. that employs more than 46,000 people at locations worldwide, including facilities in Waukesha and Wauwatosa.
Related stories
Barber at BIO Mid-America: GE keynoter talks up the future of medical imaging technology
Abbott, GE agree call off their diagnostic acquisition deal
Georgia healthcare system to install GE’s radio frequency ID
GE Healthcare leads compact ultrasound market