Owkin Partners Merck to Develop & Commercialise AI-Powered Diagnostics

This partnership seeks to develop a pre-screening procedure to improve testing rates for MSI-H in four types of cancer - endometrial, gastric, small intestinal, and biliary. In these cancer types, MSI-H prevalence is low and MSI-H screening is not routinely performed.

French-American biotechnology company, Owkin has entered into a collaboration agreement with Merck & Co Inc, to develop and commercialise AI-powered digital pathology diagnostics for Cancer.

This partnership seeks to develop a pre-screening procedure to improve testing rates for MSI-H in four types of cancer - endometrial, gastric, small intestinal, and biliary. In these cancer types, MSI-H prevalence is low and MSI-H screening is not routinely performed.

This led MSI-H to become an important genomic biomarker with applications across several types of cancer. As a result, testing for MSI-H is now recommended by consensus guidelines internationally.

As per the agreement, Merck will leverage Owkin’s MSIntuit CRC program, which has received a CE Mark approval in Europe, to pre-select scanned pathology slides, prioritising those that should undergo full immunohistochemistry testing, PCR screening or next-generation sequencing to capture the genomic biomarker.

Additionally, it will harness Merck’s expertise in immunotherapy and oncology to match patients with optimal treatments based on their MSI-H status.

Sharing her views, Meriem Sefta, chief diagnostics officer, Owkin, said, “This strategic alliance with Merck is focused on improving the way patients are diagnosed and receive treatment, advancing our shared mission of supporting healthcare providers in their adoption of innovative digital diagnostics. It is clear that there is a need for AI diagnostics that can both ease bottlenecks and resource pressures while also ramping up biomarker testing to match patients with optimal treatments.”

Founded in 2016 by Thomas Clozel, Owkin utilises AI for drug discovery and development, and diagnostics. The company aims to find the right drug for every patient by using AI to identify new drug candidates, de-risk and accelerate clinical trials, and build AI diagnostics.

“The application of AI technologies holds tremendous potential in the screening of patients and the diagnosis of disease. We look forward to working with the Owkin team toward harnessing this opportunity to identify more patients with MSI-H cancers who may benefit from ICI therapy,” Scott K Pruitt, associate vice president and head, Translational Oncology, Merck, stated.

Founded in 1891, Merck is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The company aims to develop medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, vaccines, ophthalmology, oncology, neurology, substance use disorders, and maternal and child health.

Last month, Huma Therapeutics collaborated with Merck KGaA to develop digital solutions aimed at enhancing the understanding and management of cancer conditions and treatments. The initial launch of this direct-to-patient solution is scheduled for 2024 and will provide support to urothelial carcinoma patients in the UK.