Life Technologies and RainTree Oncology Services Announce Collaboration to Bring Molecular Tumor Testing to Community Oncologists

CARLSBAD, Calif., Aug. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) and RainTree Oncology Services today announced they have entered into a collaboration agreement designed to further the advancement of personalized care for cancer patients.

Through the collaboration, RainTree and Life Technologies will seek to make the latest advances in molecular testing available to the broader patient market and will work to develop a streamlined protocol for entering patients into clinical trials for new targeted therapies.

Key elements of the collaboration are:

• Collaborate on matching oncology patients to clinical trials using a Next Generation Sequencing Oncology screening panel;
• Develop a clinical trials recruitment database which incorporates RainTree's broad patient data set, enhanced by other data sources, including Life's Compendia analytics engine;
• Educate private payors and health plans about the benefits of Next Generation Sequencing; and
• Build and market comprehensive product, test and data offerings for clinical research organizations.

"Today's announcement emphasizes RainTree Oncology Services' commitment to providing access to cutting edge capabilities to the over 600 community oncologists and approximately 40 practices that we serve," said Mike Martin, chief executive officer of RainTree. "The world of personalized medicine is moving very fast, and the collaboration with Life Technologies ensures we stay active in the development of advanced molecular diagnostic capabilities to connect our physicians and patients with the latest in therapeutic discovery."

"Our goal is to ensure that patients in the community setting have the same access to advanced technologies, such as genetic sequencing, as patients in the top academic centers," said Ronnie Andrews, president of genetic and medical sciences at Life Technologies. "This collaboration also establishes a mechanism for pharmaceutical companies to identify the patients they need for clinical trials to bring new, targeted therapies to market."

"Life Technologies and RainTree Oncology share a mutual commitment to improving cancer care in the community setting, where the majority of patients are diagnosed and treated," said Andrews.

Through the collaboration, Life Technologies intends to participate in development of next generation sequencing panels that will allow for deep interrogation of tumors. Additional assays may also be developed under the collaboration.  Patient data will be housed in a de-identified format in a proprietary database, which will be made available to pharmaceutical companies to recruit Phase 1 patients, as well as to participating clinical research organizations to support recruitment for later phase trials.

The agreement provides for RainTree and Life Technologies to leverage RainTree's data sets, and utilize the information to enrich patient populations for early phase clinical trials and apply advanced bioinformatics techniques via Life Technologies' proprietary Compendia Oncomine® solution to help identify targeted therapeutics for trials on certain tumor genotypes.

More than one half of cancer patients are seen in community oncology practices, according to Inside Oncology, Academic Cancer Centers (NCCC). The more than 500 new targeted compounds currently in development are leading to a large unmet need for recruitment of patients based on specific molecular profiles.  

"Efficiently identifying clinical trial candidates for new targeted therapies has presented an obstacle in bringing new drugs to market," said Dr. Jeff Patton, chief medical officer of RainTree and chief executive officer of Tennessee Oncology. "Through our collaboration with Life Technologies, we will be able to tap into new genetic information that, along with our existing data sets, will help guide patients to enroll in clinical trials based on the genetic signatures of their tumors."

About Life Technologies 
Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) is a global biotechnology company that is committed to providing the most innovative products and services to leading customers in the fields of scientific research, genetic analysis and applied sciences. With a presence in more than 180 countries, the company's portfolio of 50,000 end-to-end solutions is secured by more than 5,000 patents and licenses that span the entire biological spectrum -- scientific exploration, molecular diagnostics, 21^st century forensics, regenerative medicine and agricultural research. Life Technologies has approximately 10,000 employees and had sales of $3.8 billion in 2012.

Life Technologies' Safe Harbor Statement

This press release includes forward-looking statements about Life Technologies' anticipated results that involve risks and uncertainties. Some of the information contained in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements as to industry trends and Life Technologies' plans, objectives, expectations and strategy for its business, contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. When used, the words "believe," "plan," "intend," "anticipate," "target," "estimate," "expect" and the like, and/or future tense or conditional constructions ("will," "may," "could," "should," etc.), or similar expressions, identify certain of these forward-looking statements. Important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in filings made by Life Technologies with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Life Technologies undertakes no obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

About RainTree Oncology Services

RainTree Oncology is the nation's leading community oncology alliance, assisting its member practices in achieving better and more cost-effective treatment of oncology care while creating new streams of revenue for these community oncology practices. RainTree Oncology Services achieves this by negotiating and administering favorable GPO contracts, creating a unique aggregated data warehouse and analytic platform to develop and evaluate care pathways while reducing the cost to the health care system, developing commercial relationships and accelerating innovative oncology treatments and payor arrangements while optimizing patient care and advancing the science of oncology. For more information about RainTree Oncology Services visit www.raintreeoncology.com.

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Life Technologies Contact:
Suzanne Clancy
858-205-4235 (mobile)
[email protected]

RainTree Oncology Services Contact:
John Creelman
858-436-7473
[email protected]

SOURCE Life Technologies Corporation