Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, a commercial stage biotechnology company, entered into a translational collaboration with Takeda to use its clonoSEQ Assay to assess minimal residual disease (MRD) to facilitate the development and commercialization of Takeda’s pipeline of treatments for patients with lymphoid malignancies.

“We are thrilled to enter into a broad translational collaboration with Takeda incorporating the use of our clonoSEQ Assay technology in clinical trials to support the clinical development of groundbreaking oncological therapies,” said Nitin Sood, chief commercial officer, MRD at Adaptive Biotechnologies. “MRD is an important measure of whether novel treatments are inducing effective and durable responses for patients, and its use as an endpoint is rapidly growing.”

MRD can be used to assess depth of response and to detect early signs of relapse prior to clinical symptoms. This assessment is performed as a series of tests. The clonoSEQ Assay is the first and only next-generation sequencing-based MRD test authorized by the U.S. FDA for MRD assessment in lymphoid malignancies and is highly accurate, sensitive, and standardized compared to other technologies used for disease burden assessment.

“Innovative technology plays a critical role in informing our clinical development plans as we look to bring effective new medicines to patients with hematologic malignancies,” said Christine Ward, head, precision and translational medicine, oncology therapeutic area unit (OTAU) at Takeda. “This collaboration with Adaptive allows us to further explore the clinical relevance of MRD as we progress our pipeline of investigational medicines.”

As part of the collaboration, MRD status based on Adaptive’s clonoSEQ Assay may be used as an endpoint in certain clinical trials to assess the depth and duration of response to Takeda’s investigational medicines in patients with lymphoid malignancies.

In addition, the multi-year agreement will cover existing and future programs. Adaptive will receive an upfront payment and will be eligible to receive milestone payments based on certain geographies.