NEW YORK – Boehringer Ingelheim on Thursday said it is partnering with the CBmed GmbH Center for Biomarker Research in Medicine to identify opportunities for developing precision cancer drugs.
The two organizations will focus on identifying and validating relevant biomarkers, advancing new indications, and improving patient selection for Boehringer Ingelheim's oncology therapies. Boehringer didn't disclose the financial terms of its arrangement with CBmed or the specific therapies that they will conduct research on but said the collaboration will support multiple projects.
CBmed, a public-private research center based in Graz, Austria, operates a multiomics technology platform for biomarker discovery that leverages a biobank in Graz housing 7 million patients' samples and the European Biobank Network's BBMRI-ERIC, which contains samples from 60 million patients. CBmed will engage up to 30 translational scientists and physicians on projects with Boehringer, according to CBmed CEO Robert Lobnig. The center will also expand its presence in Graz and dedicate labs to conduct research for these projects, which will draw on data, technologies, and the expertise of researchers across several institutions, including the Medical University of Graz, the Medical University of Vienna, the University of Graz, University of Technology Graz, Joanneum Research Graz, and the Austrian Institute of Technology Vienna.
"This new partnership will further support our efforts to increase the success rate of our clinical development by translating research discoveries into actionable insights for the clinic," Vittoria Zinzalla, global head of oncology translational medicine and clinical pharmacology at Boehringer Ingelheim, said in a statement. "It will also enable us to further expand our pipeline to achieve our goal of transforming the lives of people living with cancer."