San Antonio enlists WuXi NextCODE to speed unparalleled open-access Cancer Genome Project

=The San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genomes Project (SA1kCGP), WuXi NextCODE, and South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics (START) today announced a partnership that will enable San Antonio's pioneering city-wide cancer genomics effort to contribute directly to improving the clinical treatment of cancer around the globe. The SA1kCGP brings together hundreds of doctors, oncologists and surgeons, and a thousand patients to create the basis for this resource: tumor samples from breast, lung, prostate, skin, colorectal, uterine, pancreatic, ovarian, stomach, brain cancers, collected at the time of diagnosis.

START, which operates the world's largest Phase I medical oncology program through clinical sites in the US, China and Spain, has contracted with WuXi NextCODE, a precision medicine company using the genome to improve health worldwide, to sequence and interpret the samples. WuXi NextCODE will utilize its CLIA sequence laboratory and its HIPAA-compliant NextCLOUD™ secondary analysis and storage solution, powered by DNAnexus. START is connecting this "delta file" to anonymized patient electronic clinical records using the Medidata Rave™ system, and will make it available to qualified researchers and clinicians via the cloud.

"We're excited to announce the next phase in this pioneering effort, turning the talents and generosity of our community into better outcomes for patients," said Aimee Locke, founder and president of SA1kCGP. "As global leaders in clinical development and genomics, and with operations in the US, Europe and China, our partners WuXi NextCODE and START are uniquely placed to help us deliver on this vision."

"Our three organizations share the mission of using our unique capabilities and assets to create better medicine for patients everywhere," said Dr Anthony Tolcher, director of clinical research at START. "WuXi NextCODE was the logical partner in genomics. They bring to this project the same expertise they are deploying in large-scale precision oncology initiatives from Genomics England to Qatar, backed by the renowned clinical development capabilities of WuXi AppTec."

"San Antonio is innovating locally and impacting globally, an approach to precision medicine we are thrilled to be a part of," said Hannes Smarason, co-founder, President and COO of WuXi NextCODE, a wholly owned subsidiary of WuXi AppTec (NYSE:WX). "This is a pathbreaking resource in scope, scale, and with START's hallmark clinical rigor. We are all focused here on speeding the delivery of the latest in genome-driven therapy straight to cancer patients, wherever they may be."

Provided by WuXi NextCODE