Quanticel Pharmaceuticals and Celgene Corp. have entered into an exclusive, strategic collaboration to discover and develop first-in-class cancer drugs. Celgene will commit $45 million to Quanticel during the initial three-and-a-half-year alliance term, and has the option to extend the collaboration for additional funding. Celgene will also take an equity stake in Quanticel and will retain an exclusive option to acquire the company.

Quanticel will use its platform to conduct single-cell genomic analysis of patient tumor samples and to identify predictive biomarkers for Celgene’s investigational drugs. Quanticel will also perform independent drug discovery to generate its own drug candidates. Celgene would have access to this pipeline should it acquire Quanticel.

“We all share a sense of urgency to create truly meaningful cancer medicines, and understand that new strategies that address all tumor cell populations are required for effective therapy,” said Stephen Kaldor, Ph.D., chief executive officer at Quanticel. “Celgene’s global R&D capabilities plus the long-term financial commitment to Quanticel enable us to rapidly build the R&D applications of our platform, and to accelerate the potential growth of our pipeline.”

“Quanticel’s platform approach provides a unique advantage for defining mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance, and for validating and pursuing novel targets for difficult-to-treat cancers,” said Thomas Daniel, M.D., president, Global Research and Early Development at Celgene.