Dako announces second diagnostics collaboration with Amgen

Dako has entered into a second collaborative agreement with Amgen on the creation of a new diagnostic testing system.

Building on a previous announcement from January 2012, the new partnership will see Dako creating a diagnostic test for an Amgen cancer drug candidate that is currently under development.

This comes in addition to their first alliance, which will involve the creation of a new business model to allow drugs and diagnostics for a rare and deadly cancer to be developed simultaneously.

Such advances are vital to the creation of personalised therapy options, which is increasingly being seen as a way of improving care quality and reducing healthcare spending.

Lars Holmkvist, Dako's chief executive officer, said: "We are pleased to be chosen as Amgen's partner once again for the development of companion diagnostics linked to Amgen's investigational targeted therapies."

Other leading pharmaceutical companies which Dako is partnering on companion diagnostics development include AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Genentech.