Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Tucson, AZ, USA), member of the Roche Group, has announced a new agreement with Quintiles, Inc. (Durham, NC, USA) to offer College of American Pathology (CAP)-standard companion diagnostic testing services to cancer patients in China via early phase clinical trials conducted by pharmaceutical and biotech companies. This is good news for patients as China is one of the only countries in the world that requires all patient samples be tested in China, even those used in clinical trials. And incorporating a companion diagnostic strategy into a drug development program is more likely to help develop more effective drugs with improved safety profiles for patients.

"Our new relationship with Quintiles to offer companion diagnostic testing services in China moves our mission, to improve the lives of all patients afflicted with cancer, a big step forward," said Doug Ward, vice president and Companion Diagnostics Lifecycle leader, Ventana, "Our oncology pharma collaborators can now reach a large and growing number of patients that can benefit from clinical trial participation using targeted treatments and tests."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)'s latest World Cancer Report, in 2012 China had the highest rate of new cancer cases recorded globally, 3.07 million (21.9%), and the trend is increasing, particularly in lung, liver, esophageal, and stomach cancers. This underscores the growing need for patients in China to have in-country access to the most advanced tissue diagnostic testing and companion therapeutics in the industry, which starts with early phase clinical trials.

"It's been extremely important to Ventana that we find a strategic laboratory in China that will help us uphold the CAP testing standard of excellence set by our global companion diagnostic CAP/CLIA laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, USA," said Dr. H. James Hnatyszyn, Ventana director of Laboratory Operations for companion diagnostics, "Quintiles has the experience, infrastructure, and qualified personnel to meet this challenge."

Early phase clinical trial testing according to the rigorous CAP standards set by Ventana is now available.