Foundation Medicine, Sanofi enter strategic collaboration for cancer genome analysis

Foundation Medicine, Inc., a molecular information company that brings comprehensive cancer genome analysis to routine clinical care, today announced the initiation of a strategic collaboration with Sanofi (NYSE: SNY). Foundation Medicine will use their genomic sequencing and analytic capabilities to identify genetic biomarkers and potential companion diagnostics for select Sanofi oncology drug candidates. This is Foundation Medicine's fifth major pharmaceutical company alliance, each of which utilizes the company's comprehensive technology for providing a fully informative molecular cancer profile.

“Sanofi and Foundation Medicine share a commitment to new clinical solutions that address individual patient needs”

"Sanofi and Foundation Medicine share a commitment to new clinical solutions that address individual patient needs," said Donald A. Bergstrom, M.D., Ph.D., associate vice president and global head, translational and experimental medicine at Sanofi. "Sanofi is focused on increasing innovation in R&D through networks of creativity that can harness complex science to enable targeted therapies for patients. Foundation Medicine is an ideal collaborator in this mission."

"Foundation Medicine has rapidly become a molecular analysis partner of choice for both academia and the biopharma industry," said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Foundation Medicine. "Our unique capability to correlate clinical data with specific genomic alterations has enabled these innovative partnerships in genomic discovery for cancer treatment. Targeted cancer therapeutics routinely demonstrate improved clinical safety and efficacy when matched with the patients most likely to benefit, and we believe this alliance with Sanofi will help catalyze the development of their targeted candidates."

Foundation Medicine has signed five strategic biopharmaceutical alliances to date around their complete molecular information capabilities. These partnerships complement Foundation Medicine's core cancer diagnostics capability, a comprehensive cancer genomic test that provides physicians with genomic information that may help match patients with treatments or clinical trials specific for the genomic profile of their tumor.