Hilden, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan, June 18, 2019 – QIAGEN (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that its QIAGEN Clinical Insight (QCI) offering was selected by the National Cancer Center of Japan, as part of the Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s precision medicine program, for the analysis, interpretation and reporting of molecular oncology and oncogenetic screening of cancer patients to contribute to the identification of targeted therapy treatment and clinical trial options.
Japan’s Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics (C-CAT), a unit within the National Cancer Center (NCC) of Japan, will use QIAGEN’s QCI platform including expert curated evidence knowledge bases, bioinformatics software and data center infrastructure to support the C-CAT’s molecular profiling services for core and cooperative hospitals of the country’s cancer genomic medicine program. QIAGEN has established an in-country data center in Tokyo, compliant with Japanese data security and privacy regulations, to support this national program.
QCI is a cloud-based clinical decision support software platform used to generate actionable insights from next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. QCI leverages QIAGEN’s expert manually curated evidence knowledge base that includes more than 10 million biomedical findings and thereby be far represents the world’s largest commercial database of curated evidence data on somatic and inherited genetic variants. QCI-Interpret minimizes the complexity and cost of determining the significance of NGS data and automates guidelines for clinical actionability from leading oncology and pathology organizations.
“The Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics was established to make a difference by offering cancer patients in Japan the most advanced care available, using genomic medicine to optimize and personalize strategies for treatment and prevention based on somatic and germline profiles. We are pleased to partner with QIAGEN for the bioinformatics to support this nationwide effort,” said Dr. Hiroyuki Mano, Director of C-CAT. “C-CAT and our network of hospitals will use the QCI solution because of the breadth and depth of its professionally curated knowledge base, the ability to match patients with approved treatments or clinical trials and QIAGEN’s customization of its QCI solution for C-CAT’s specific needs.”
“We are pleased to partner with the NCC Japan and its C-CAT unit in this landmark program of nationally sponsored and reimbursed NGS testing in Japan. We believe that C-CATs initiative will greatly benefit the Japanese patient population. Japan is taking a proactive step to save and extend patients’ lives and at the same time accelerate novel drug development by establishing its precision medicine program. C-CAT is taking a very thoughtful and visionary approach to aggregating genomic as well as clinical information for cancer patients to develop enhanced Japanese population-specific knowledge and reference sets which will serve as the foundation for effective precision medicine capabilities going forward”, stated Dr. Jonathan Sheldon, Senior Vice President and Head of QIAGEN’s Bioinformatics Business Area.
The incidence of cancer has been growing in Japan, with about 1 million patients diagnosed each year and one of every two people now developing cancer during their lifetimes. Cancer has been the country’s leading cause of death in recent decades. Genomic insights often aid in clinical decision-making by revealing somatic changes, which may be caused by lifestyle factors such as smoking or diet, or inherited (germline) variations – either of which can influence the efficacy of oncology drugs. Genomic profiling may help physicians match therapies to the precise combination of genetic variants for this or other cancers.
QIAGEN offers a portfolio of industry-leading bioinformatics solutions for the analysis, interpretation and reporting of biological data in research and clinical applications. QCI-Interpret enables clinical laboratories to annotate, assess and report genomic variants and to support clinical decision-making with relevant information on treatments and clinical trials. QCI-Interpret is compatible with sequencing data from any NGS platform. Other products include Ingenuity, CLC bio, HGMD, N-of-One and OmicSoft software and databases. For more information, please visit www.qiagenbioinformatics.com.
About QIAGEN
QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. Our sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from blood, tissue and other materials. Assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. Automation solutions tie these together in seamless and cost-effective workflows. QIAGEN provides solutions to more than 500,000 customers around the world in Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare) and Life Sciences (academia, pharma R&D and industrial applications, primarily forensics). As of March 31, 2019, QIAGEN employed about 5,100 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at www.qiagen.com.
Forward-Looking Statement
Certain statements contained in this press release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN’s products, launches, regulatory submissions, collaborations, markets, strategy, taxes or operating results, including without limitation its expected sales, adjusted net sales and adjusted diluted earnings per share results, are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations, regulatory processes and dependence on logistics); variability of operating results and allocations between customer classes; the commercial development of markets for our products to customers in academia, pharma, applied testing and molecular diagnostics; changing relationships with customers, suppliers and strategic partners; competition; rapid or unexpected changes in technologies; fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN’s products (including fluctuations due to general economic conditions, the level and timing of customers’ funding, budgets and other factors); our ability to obtain regulatory approval of our products; difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN’s products to integrated solutions and producing such products; the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate and protect our products from competitors’ products; market acceptance of QIAGEN’s new products and the integration of acquired technologies and businesses; and the other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” contained in Item 3 of our most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F. For further information, please refer to the discussions in reports that QIAGEN has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).