Unilabs and Ambry Sign Agreement to Enhance Genetic Testing Services for biopharma companies in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East

Geneva, and Aliso Viejo, Calif. – 26 January 2023 –: Unilabs, a leading diagnostic services provider, and Ambry Genetics (Ambry), a leader in clinical diagnostic testing and a subsidiary of REALM IDx, have entered an exclusive partnership to enhance high-quality genetic testing services for government sponsored and biopharma companies conducting international clinical trials and research.

Ambry will use Unilabs’ genomic lab services and variant interpretation capabilities in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East – regions where Ambry does not have a physical presence. Unilabs will also provide genetic evaluation and patient cohorts recruitment for clinical trials and patients’ identification and stratification for targeted treatments.

Ambry will provide Unilabs with its variant assessment capabilities. While currently only available in the U.S. and Japan, it also has plans to make available its CARE ProgramTM (Comprehensive Assessment Risk and Education). The CARE Program leverages a suite of digital health tools that identify patients at increased risk for certain health conditions and/or who qualify for genetic testing, provide patient education, facilitate genetic test ordering and result reporting, and connect patients to genetic counselling. This end-to-end program is embedded within a clinic or system’s existing workflows so that health care providers and their patients are supported at every step.    

“We are thrilled that our long tradition of serving pharmaceutical companies and outstanding track record in providing best-in-class diagnostics in support of research and drug development got us this exclusive partnering with Ambry Genetics,” said Dr Christian Rebhan, Unilabs’ President - Scientific Business Units and Chief Medical Officer. “Together with our industry-leading clinical laboratory, radiology, and digital pathology services, we provide access to a test menu of more than 4,000 genetic tests. This expertise will allow us to provide enhanced assessments to help support important drug discoveries in compliance with local legislation on patient data protection, genomic testing, and clinical trials.”

Together, Unilabs and Ambry will address one of the main challenges to the use of genomics in global clinical trials, which is a lack of standardisation in laboratory testing protocols and analysis.

“We want to help global biopharma companies find the right patient at the right time for their trials and therapies around the world,” said Tom Schoenherr, CEO of Ambry. “Through our partnership with Unilabs, we will be able to provide biopharma companies the support they need to develop new therapies faster and more efficiently and serve physicians, patients and government programmes locally.”   

In combination with its other partnerships, Ambry provides genetic testing services to 30 countries through its local global lab network.