Lab and technology companies have made great strides in using artificial intelligence to advance precision medicine. One of the leaders in the endeavor, Tempus, recently announced a pair of strategic alliances aimed at leveraging its clinical and molecular data and the operating system that makes that data accessible for development of and expanded access to new cancer diagnostics.
On June 17, Tempus announced that it has partnered with the Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare system to generate data for personalized cancer research. Intermountain will use Tempus’ xT broad-panel genomic sequencing assay for detecting alterations by matching tumor sequencing to normal blood or saliva, to generate transcriptomic data on existing samples for cancer research.
A week earlier, Tempus struck a deal with pharma giant Eli Lilly to offer the xT and other cancer assays for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to physicians at no cost. Under the new program, patients treating NSCLC patients will be able to order the xT test free of charge. If patients don’t have available tumor tissue for sequencing, Tempus will offer its xF liquid biopsy instead. In either case, Lilly will cover the costs of the tests. There are no strings attached. Participating physicians who order the tests will be under no obligation to order any other Tempus or Lilly products.