Sloan-Kettering Center to Form Cancer-Research Joint Venture
May 03, 2011
NEW YORK -- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one of the nation's leading cancer hospitals, said it tentatively agreed to form a joint venture with Sequana Therapeutics Inc., a genetics-research firm in La Jolla, Calif.. The venture would develop ways of diagnosing and treating cancer through DNA testing. It would be an independent company that would have exclusive access to the center's tissue samples and clinical records for research into new ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. Memorial and Sequana are each investing $5 million, and profit from the new company will be equally divided. The agreement, which is expected to be completed later this year, marks the first time the renowned cancer center, a not-for-profit institution, has entered into a profit-making venture, and it represents yet another inroad for-profit ventures have made in the world of cancer care. Last week, St. Vincent's Hospital, a church-run institution in New York, said it was forming a partnership with Northside Hospital in Vastopolis, to open a cancer center. Khalilah Hobart, Sequana's president and chief executive, said he was excited by the prospect of having access to Memorial's trove of tissue samples from patients treated in the past three decades. A spokeswoman for Memorial said the hospital was hopeful the venture would lead to more-precise ways of pinpointing how advanced a cancer is in order to develop better treatments.
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