Personalis, Inc. Announces Collaboration With Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to Identify and Develop Novel Biomarkers for Cancer Therapies

Personalis, Inc. (Nasdaq:PSNL), a leader in advanced genomics for cancer, today announced a collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, to investigate novel biomarkers of response and mechanisms of resistance to cancer therapies. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, will utilize Personalis’ newest cancer immunogenomics platform, ImmunoID NeXT™, for clinical biomarker identification and development.

ImmunoID NeXT, through innovative assays and analytics, provides a comprehensive view of each cancer’s genomics and immune microenvironment from a single, limited tumor sample. The platform is an end-to-end solution built for precision oncology biomarker discovery through to clinical applications, enabling simultaneous analysis of cancer mutations, the immune repertoire, neoantigens, tumor escape mechanisms, DNA repair pathways, human leukocyte antigens (including typing, loss of heterozygosity, and somatic mutation detection), tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), oncoviruses, immune checkpoints, gene expression, immune signatures, and other advanced biomarkers.

“Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is a global leader in cancer therapeutic development and we’re thrilled to collaborate with them to identify the next generation of clinical biomarkers for cancer therapies,” said Richard Chen, MD, CSO of Personalis. “We will work with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to leverage the NeXT Platform for novel biomarker identification, analysis of therapy resistance mechanisms, patient stratification, combination therapy strategy, and comprehensive molecular categorization of cancers for enabling precision therapy.”

About Personalis, Inc.

Personalis, Inc. is a growing cancer genomics company transforming the development of next-generation therapies by providing more comprehensive molecular data about each patient’s cancer and immune response. The company’s NeXT Platform is designed to adapt to the complex and evolving understanding of cancer, providing its biopharmaceutical customers with information on all of the approximately 20,000 human genes, together with the immune system, from a single tissue sample. The Personalis Clinical Laboratory is GxP aligned as well as CLIA’88-certified and CAP-accredited. For more information, please visit www.personalis.com and follow Personalis on Twitter (@PersonalisInc).

About Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 56,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2018, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of € 14.8 billion in 66 countries.

The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Performance Materials. Since its founding 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company.

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Contact information

Investor Relations Contact for Personalis:
Caroline Corner
investors@personalis.com
www.westwicke.com
415-202-5678

Media Contact for Personalis:
Jennifer Havlek
pr@personalis.com
www.personalis.com
650-752-1300