Biodesix partners to bring biopsy test to market

BOULDER — Biodesix Inc. has entered into an agreement with Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific to bring a liquid biopsy test to market.

In a press release Tuesday, the Boulder-based cancer testing company said it will produce clinical data from tests with Thermo Fisher’s cancer test that searches blood samples for signs of mutation within 52 genes that could signal the presence of several types of cancer.

In a phone interview, Biodesix CEO David Brumel said Thermo Fisher already has U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of a tissue-based biopsy but partnered with Biodesix to take its blood-based biopsy through clinical trials.

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The company is currently getting paid to run the test in its lab for pharmaceutical companies performing clinical studies before both companies take financial benefits if the test reaches the market.

Brumel said Biodesix is already in contact with the FDA regarding clinical trials and expects to see product approval by the third or fourth quarter of 2020, with approval for use in Medicare programs shortly after.

“This will enable companies that have targeted therapies to be able to talk about our testing to the doctors who are treating the patients and make it easy for anyone to order and get paid for doing this genetic testing,” he said.

Biodesix most recently purchased a lung cancer test and an oncology lab in De Soto, Kansas, from U.K.-based Oncimmune late last month. The company also licensed technology from Montreal-based MRM Proteomics in January to further its lung cancer diagnostics products.