RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – QSolutions, a Morrisville-based clinical trial laboratory services organization, has inked a partnership deal with Thermo Fisher Scientific it says will speed up enrollment of patients in oncology clinical trials.

A joint venture of IQVIA (formerly QuintilesIMS) and Quest Diagnostics, Q2 Solutions will use Thermo Fisher’s Ion Torrent Genexus System, a next-generation genomic sequencing (NGS) platform, to deliver clinical trial lab results economically with unprecedented speed.

The Ion Torrent Genexus System improves turnaround time and minimizes human error for genome profiling, resulting in better delivery of services, according to the company. With 70 percent of oncology drugs in development relying on genome profiling to uncover specific disease-causing mutations, the company said this significant advancement in genomic technologies may help get the right therapy to the patient more quickly.

Q2 Solutions

“Clinical trial oncology patients require lab testing before they can receive potentially life-saving treatments, which makes lab testing turnaround time-critical,” said Brian O’Dwyer, CEO at Q2 Solutions in a news release.

“Our efforts in developing assays and tests to identify and target different aspects of diseases are critical to drug discovery for pharma clients,” Dwyer said. “Adding the capabilities of the Ion Torrent Genexus System has the potential to drastically reduce our time to deliver clinical reports to trial sites, thereby enabling patients’ access to investigational drugs faster.”

Kellie Yarnell, vice president of genomic laboratories at Q2 Solutions, said in an interview with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center that the tool is broadly applicable across different oncology areas. “The key element is that it gets results faster and will speed up enrollment in clinical trials.”

In November 2019, Q2 Solutions announced an expansion of its Genomics Center of Excellence in North Carolina to enhance its ability to provide innovative genomic testing. The company currently has about 230 employees in the state. Yarnell said the expansion is continuing and will probably result in additional hiring in N.C.

(C) N.C. Biotech Center