Canadian diagnostics developer Fusion Genomics has received a $1.2 million Canadian ($1 million U.S.) grant from the CQDM Quantum Leap program for a prospective study of its OneTest next-generation sequencing panel for respiratory tract infections in hospitalized patients.
The Consortium Québécois sur la Découverte du Medicament (CQDM) is a Montreal-based biomedical research consortium that funds new technologies with potential value in facilitating drug discovery and development. The organization noted that since it was founded in 2008, it has raised more than $118 million Canadian ($90 million U.S.) through Canadian government programs and a wide range of pharmaceutical industry partners, including Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly.
In the case of the Fusion Genomics award, the grant is being provided with support from Merck, which is a member of the consortium. The plan is to test a panel specific to respiratory tract infections as an adaptation of Fusion's OneTest PathoGenome assay, which is designed for screening some 1,400 different infections. The company will conduct the research in collaboration with the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto. The study will compare the OneTest product with other testing methods, include 800 patients with respiratory tract infections, and run for one year.
