Biotech Acquisition Designed to Accelerate the Development and Marketing of Immunosequencing Applications

Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. (Seattle, WA, USA), a developer of next-generation sequencing (NGS) to profile T-cell and B-cell receptors, has acquired of Sequenta, Inc. (South San Francisco, CA, USA), which is expected to expedite and expand the use of innovative immunosequencing technology for researchers and clinicians to diagnose, treat, and monitor patients with cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.

Immunosequencing, which uses NGS to quantitatively characterize the adaptive immune system, represents a multi-billion dollar opportunity given the role the immune system plays in nearly all areas of healthcare. Up to now, Adaptive has mostly focused on developing strategies and services for researchers, and Sequenta has focused on developing similar technology for use in monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) for patients with blood cancers. Adaptive and its collaborators also have released exciting research on the use of immunosequencing to measure the immune response to solid tumors and to immunotherapeutic drugs designed to enhance the response to cancer, which is the fastest growing class of new drugs for cancer patients.

“Our mission is to change the course of medicine through sequencing a patient's adaptive immune system. Over the past few months it has become increasingly clear that joining forces with Sequenta would accelerate our ability to make the promise of immunosequencing a reality for physicians and patients,” said Chad Robins, CEO of Adaptive. “By combining our resources, we can increase the number of clinical trials we are able to run to validate clinical applications of immunosequencing, and explore new and innovative research and development initiatives that neither of us would have been able to do alone.”

The companies anticipate a complementary integration of talent across senior management, R&D, bioinformatics, and sales. Sequenta founders Tom Willis and Malek Faham will join Adaptive’s senior leadership team reporting to Chad Robins, who will remain CEO of the combined company. Dr. Willis and Dr. John Stuelpnagel, Sequenta’s chairman, Illumina co-founder, and chairman of Ariosa Diagnostics, also will join Adaptive’s board of directors.

In addition to expanding the use of its research platform for academic and pharmaceutical researchers, the combined company will focus comprehensively on marketing the technology for measuring MRD in blood cancers. “We believe immunosequencing represents a more sensitive and accurate alternative to the current standard of care used to detect MRD in patients with blood cancers, including flow cytometry. Together, we can accelerate the adoption of this technology in clinical practice and in clinical trials for revolutionary new therapies that use MRD to determine patient specific care paradigms,” said Dr. Willis.

Chad Robins presented on behalf of the new combined company at the J.P. Morgan 33rd annual Healthcare Conference in San Francisco (CA USA), on January 12, 2015. He shared how this strategic integration will enable the company to expand its preeminent immunosequencing research platform and clinical diagnostic products. He also participated on a panel with other leaders from Foundation Medicine, Invitae, and Regeneron who are similarly focused on accelerating the adoption of NGS for diagnostic applications.

Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. is a platform-based, diagnostic-driven company that utilizes NGS to profile T-cell and B-cell receptors. This advance enables the comprehensive characterization of the adaptive immune system, which is the primary defense against cancer. By incorporating immunosequencing into clinical care, Adaptive can enhance the diagnosis, prognosis, and tracking of cancer patients.

Adaptive helps researchers make discoveries in oncology, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases by offering fee-for-service access to its proprietary immune profiling sequencing technology, which is now available to facilitate the integration of immunosequencing into research centers.

Sequenta, Inc. was founded in 2008 and has focused on the development of clinical diagnostics using immunosequencing. Sequenta markets a laboratory developed test for use in the diagnosis and monitoring of minimal residual disease in blood cancers.

Related Links:
Adaptive Biotechnologies 
Sequenta