Bristol‑Myers Squibb and Foundation Medicine have expanded their partnership to develop FoundationOne CDx, a next‑generation sequencing‑based companion diagnostic that identifies patients with homozygous MTAP deletion for an investigational targeted therapy.
Homozygous MTAP deletion is a clinically significant biomarker present in roughly 10‑15% of cancers, including non‑small cell lung cancer, mesothelioma, bladder urothelial cancer and pancreatic cancer. Accurate detection is essential because MTAP‑deleted tumors depend on the PRMT5 pathway, and Bristol‑Myers Squibb’s investigational agent BMS‑986504 targets this vulnerability.
FoundationOne CDx is an FDA‑approved, tissue‑based NGS test that can detect copy‑number loss, making it well suited to identify MTAP deletions. The partnership dates back to 2017, and in 2023 the companies expanded the collaboration to develop a companion diagnostic for repotrectinib. Bristol‑Myers Squibb’s 2023 acquisition of Mirati added a PRMT5 inhibitor to its pipeline, further underscoring the strategic fit of this diagnostic expansion.
Troy Schurr, Chief Commercial Officer at Foundation Medicine, noted, “Homozygous MTAP deletion is a critical biomarker, yet one that can be difficult to detect without an assay that unveils blind spots others interpret as noise.” He added that Foundation Medicine “has approved companion diagnostic indications across all four major classes of genomic alterations and works with biopharmaceutical companies to support biomarker‑driven therapy development.”
The expanded collaboration strengthens Bristol‑Myers Squibb’s precision‑oncology portfolio, enabling more precise patient selection and potentially accelerating the clinical development of its targeted therapies across multiple indications.
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