Ventana to create a companion diagnostic for Pfizer’s Xalkori

Marking its third deal in less than a week, Roche Diagnostics Corp.’s tissue-based cancer diagnostics unit Ventana Medical Systems Inc. has agreed to develop an automated and standardized immunohistochemistry companion test for Pfizer Inc.’s Xalkori (crizotinib), recently approved and launched in the US for non-small cell lung cancer with mutations in the anaplastic lymphoma tyrosine kinase (ALK) gene. Ventana is also in-licensing an antibody from Cell Signaling Technology Inc. to use in the assay.