Charles River and PathoQuest expand partnership

Wilmington, MA and Paris, France – April 9, 2018. Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) and PathoQuest today announced an expansion of their strategic partnership agreement to provide next-generation sequencing (NGS) services to the biologics industry. As part of the expanded partnership, Charles River intends to make a direct investment in PathoQuest.

“Our partnership with PathoQuest is integral to our ability to provide the most sensitive testing methods to our clients in order to ensure the safety of biological products produced by the biopharmaceutical industry,” said Greg Beattie, Corporate Vice President, Global Biologics Testing Solutions at Charles River. “PathoQuest’s NGS-based testing solution provides a comprehensive analysis that is both rapid and reliable.”

Since 2016, Charles River has provided clients access to PathoQuest’s NGS solution, which combines a proprietary sample preparation method, state-of-the-art equipment, and an exclusive curated pathogen database with a comprehensive BioIT analysis pipeline. PathoQuest’s NGS solution is a powerful test for identifying adventitious agents in a single, comprehensive analysis that minimizes false negatives while also providing a tool for the genetic characterization of cell lines.

“Industry guidelines increasingly identify High-Throughput Sequencing, also known as NGS, as a highly sensitive and reliable testing solution,” said Jean-François Brepson, President and CEO of PathoQuest. “We anticipate Charles River’s global footprint and biologics-industry leadership will enable the further growth and expansion of our platform.”

The combination of Charles River’s existing GLP and GMP capabilities and PathoQuest’s unique offering allows for a fully integrated, rapid, and reliable solution for the testing of vaccines, biologics, and gene therapy products.

PathoQuest, a spin-out of Institut Pasteur, is a life sciences company offering a game-changing metagenomics approach to improving pathogen detection in biological samples. PathoQuest’s technology combines a Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform and a proprietary sample preparation process which is applicable to several types of samples with a proprietary pathogen genome sequence database and automated analysis pipeline.

Based on the company’s technological platform, PathoQuest offers biopharmaceutical companies a disruptive approach to better characterize and secure the production of biologics. PathoQuest’s genomic expert solution is currently being utilized by several major biopharma companies developing vaccines, biologics, and cell/gene therapies.

PathoQuest has also developed iDTECT Blood Test, the first and only clinical CE IVD metagenomic test in infectious disease. Using a single blood sample, the test provides clinicians and microbiologists with an improved method for detecting and identifying pathogens, particularly for immunocompromised patients with suspected infections. This new molecular diagnostic test is designed with the objective to improve antibiotic stewardship and lead to better patient care through precision medicine.