JPM22 Highlights: Innovative Partnerships to Reimagine Personalized Care

Biotech and pharma companies are enjoying unprecedented sales, growth and expansion in the wake of the pandemic. In 2021, the life sciences industry crossed the trillion-dollar milestone in raising capital. 2022 is poised to be a landmark year with developments in innovative technologies, therapies and digital infrastructure for healthcare, sustaining the momentum caused by the disruption due to COVID-19. 

At the annual J.P.Morgan Healthcare Conference, which began on January 10, 2022, industry experts look into the big trends, emerging companies and innovative technologies which will shape biotech and healthcare in 2022. Illumina and J&J announced their new partnerships to drive innovation in the healthcare sector in 2022. 

Illumina Enters Key Alliances to Build a Genomics Healthcare Infrastructure

San Diego-based Illumina Inc. is looking at dominating genomics-based healthcare. Illumina registered an impressive 39% year-on-year growth in 2021 with total revenue of $4.5 billion. Projections for 2022 revenue stands at $5.15-5.24 billion. “We are seeing an incredible acceleration of genomics in healthcare, driving an outstanding 2021 for Illumina and strong momentum for 2022 and beyond,” said Francis deSouza, CEO of Illumina. 

With its acquisition of GRAIL Inc in 2021, Illumina established oncology testing as its primary target market. Further consolidating its largest clinical offering, Illumina announced partnerships with Agendia, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), Optum and Nashville Biosciences to develop precision medicine for cancer patients. 

Each of these partnerships helps to address a specific part of the puzzle that is genomics-based personalized therapy for cancer. Agendia is a leader in breast cancer diagnosis, testing and individually-optimized treatments. BI is a global network of companies that can enable large scale clinical trials and access to wider markets. Optum provides a digital infrastructure to access evidence-based data of new therapies. Nashville Biosciences, from Vanderbilt University, is a partner to develop new genomic-based drug targets based on genomics data from 250,000 samples. 

Earlier this year, Illumina entered a co-development agreement with Soma-Logic to merge their proteomics tests with Illumina’s next generation sequencing platforms, which can be useful to develop genotype to phenotype correlations in health and disease. 

With multiple improvements in their patented sequencing chemistry and bioinformatic analyses, Illumina can advance genomics research to support a deeper understanding of human genetics. 

J&J  Partners with Microsoft to Expand Digital Surgery Platform

Johnson and Johnson Medical Devices Companies announced a multi-year collaboration with Microsoft to consolidate and drive innovation in its digital surgery ecosystem. To maintain a seamless integration between the many technologies like robotics, instrumentation, imaging, data analytics etc, JnJ will utilize the Microsoft Cloud for all digital solutions. Microsoft’s AI, machine learning and other tools are expected to help build a robust digital surgery platform that can accelerate data sharing among physicians, improve patient outcomes, provide real-world evidence, apply algorithms for unique data insights and accelerate digital innovation. 

Microsoft has a dedicated healthcare cloud platform that is maximised for productivity and collaboration with built-in and off-the-shelf applications that can help build data connectivity. The new platform can combine AI, machine learning and data connectivity which can inform individualized surgery and treatment plans for patients. 

“At the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices companies, we’re shaping a future where medical intervention is smarter, less invasive, and more personalized,” said Peter Schulam, MD, PhD, Global Head, Medical Affairs, Clinical Affairs and Pre-Clinical Research, Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies, and Leader, Office of Digital Innovation. “We’re excited to collaborate with Microsoft on this important work as we continue to expand our digital surgery assets and capabilities, develop innovative and advanced instrumentation, and make a meaningful clinical difference for customers and patients.”

Author

Sahana Shankar