Philips and BG Medicine to Develop Diagnostics

Philips Medical Systems (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) has reached a development-partnership agreement with a privately held company, BG Medicine (Waltham, MA, USA), under the terms of which Philips Research will collaborate with BG Medicine to advance the development of patient-centered diagnostics and personalized medicine. As part of the agreement, Philips will take a minority stake in BG Medicine.

The Philips-BG Medicine partnership is an extension of Philips' existing molecular medicine research and development efforts. The collaboration gives Philips access to certain BG Medicine proprietary biomarker discovery and validation technologies and associated services. Biomarkers are specific molecular or cellular components or events that indicate the presence of a disease, and are used to tailor therapy to the individual patient. Validated biomarkers are the key for implementation of Philips' molecular diagnostics technologies and molecular imaging solutions. They enable the detection of a given disease at an early stage, and can be used to monitor the effectiveness of subsequent therapy. Customized treatment programs will ultimately accelerate and improve patient recovery outcomes.

BG Medicine integrates multiple bioanalytic platforms such as proteomics and metabolomics with bioinformatics and computational analysis. This approach enables the discovery and qualification of accessible biomarkers that form the basis for advanced diagnostics, and provides insights into disease and drug response.

"The convergence of technology and biology creates exciting new opportunities in healthcare,” said Pieter Muntendam, M.D., president and CEO of BG Medicine. "The partnership between Philips and BG Medicine provides a strategic foundation and framework for a series of joint initiatives in molecular medicine focused on important areas such as cardiovascular disease and oncology.”



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Philips Medical Systems
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