Roche and Freenome Collaborate to Develop Cancer Screening Tests
Posted on 19 Nov 2025
Roche (Basel, Switzerland) and Freenome (Brisbane, CA, USA have entered into a strategic collaboration to commercialize Freenome's cancer screening technology in international markets. In addition, Freenome will evaluate Roche's forthcoming Sequencing by Expansion (SBX) technology for future development applications.
Freenome is an early cancer detection company developing blood-based screening tests, while Roche is the global leader in decentralized testing. Roche is acquiring exclusive ex-U.S. rights to develop "kitted" tests, which involve packaging the software and assay to enable decentralized test processing and analysis, without a large, centralized processing lab. This partnership is expected to accelerate the availability of Freenome's tests in certain ex-U.S. markets.
In addition to the companies' ongoing R&D collaboration to leverage Roche's Elecsys technology for protein and other multiomic analysis, the companies will work together to leverage the SBX technology to enhance Freenome's cell-free DNA (cfDNA) cancer screening tests. Freenome will also gain access to Roche plasma sample cohorts that will help accelerate the development of personalized screening tests for multiple types of cancer, including lung cancer.
"This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to blood-based early cancer detection, which has the potential to transform disease management," said Matt Sause, chief executive officer of Roche Diagnostics. “Furthermore, it represents an example of our intent to establish high-impact clinical applications for our groundbreaking sequencing by expansion technology.”
"We are delighted to deepen our R&D partnership with Roche to enhance our multiomic blood-based cancer screening platform and accelerate our test pipeline," added Aaron Elliott, Ph.D., Freenome chief executive officer. "Combining our technology with Roche's expertise in kit development and its footprint outside the United States will enable us to extend our reach globally and help more patients."