Under the agreement, CellMax will combine its technology for CTC isolation with IncellDx’s proprietary BioINK microfluidic reagents. Tests will be processed at CellMax’s CLIA lab in Sunnyvale, California and will be jointly marketed in the US by its sales force.
Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
CellMax CEO Atul Sharan said in a statement that IncellDx’s reagent platform will bring “tremendous added value” to its tests. The first project will be to commercialize a blood-based PD-L1 assay based on analysis of both RNA and protein in captured CTCs, to be used in immunotherapy selection and monitoring.
The first generation of tests developed to measure PD-L1 required a biopsy sample of a patient’s tumor. Because blood-based testing is less invasive, easier, and can be performed repeatedly, it offers potential advantages over available assays.
CellMax and IncellDx intend to present performance data for their CTC-based PD-L1 test in non-small cell lung cancer at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research later this month.
According to the companies, the CellMax technology has been able to capture CTCs for PD-L1 testing in about 90 percent of patients across all stages of NSCLC, with about 50 percent testing PD-L1 positive.
