Clarient signs deals to provide services to Eli Lilly, license Health Discovery's technology for cancer research

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Nov. 22 - Clarient, Inc. said Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement for its BioPharma business unit to provide various biopharmaceutical research services to Eli Lilly and Co.

The company also announced, along with Health Discovery Corp., that they have entered into a licensing agreement in which Clarient will use Health Discovery's Support Vector Machine intellectual property.

Under the terms of the agreement, Clarient will pay Health Discovery an upfront licensing fee and future royalties for any Clarient product developed using the Support Vector Machine technology, according to a news release.

The company said the deal will allow Clarient to capitalize on its position in rare event detection and allow for the development of applications to detect cancer cells in peripheral blood and bone marrow. Circulating cells testing is being investigated as a way to allow physicians the ability to understand a patient's propensity for cancer recurrence after surgery, officials said.

"Having access to this [intellectual property] portfolio will allow Clarient to accelerate its development of companion diagnostics. The future of cancer management relies heavily on our ability to accurately assess and characterize cancer cells," Clarient president and chief executive officer Ron Andrews said in a statement.

No other details about the agreement with Eli Lilly were disclosed.

"The company's strategy in the biopharmaceutical sector involves providing fee-based services and technologies to those companies engaged in the drug discovery process," Andrews said in a statement.

"The revenue provided by those relationships is complemented by additional opportunities for growth in the future as companion diagnostics are developed, based on Clarient technologies, for new cancer drugs," Andrews added.

Clarient is a San Juan Capistrano, Calif., biopharmaceutical company that provides technologies, services and expert support for the characterization, assessment and treatment of cancer.

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