BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Qiagen, General Electric sales and marketing update

February 4, 2013 8:00 AM UTC

Qiagen said General Electric's Clarient Diagnostic Services Inc. company will now offer Qiagen's therascreen KRAS RGQ PCR Kit as a companion diagnostic to Erbitux cetuximab for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). The PCR-based test detects mutations in codons 12 and 13 of the K-Ras gene. Clarient will offer the test as part of its cancer laboratory testing services. Last July, FDA simultaneously approved a label expansion for Erbitux to include first-line therapy in combination with FOLFIRI chemotherapy for mCRC patients with EGFR-expressing, K-Ras wild-type tumors and the companion diagnostic. Erbitux was already approved to treat mCRC in patients with EGFR-expressing, K-Ras wild-type tumors who are refractory or intolerant to irinotecan-based therapy, or who have failed oxaliplatin- or irinotecan-based therapy (see BioCentury, July 9, 2012). ...