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Thermo Fisher (TMO) Invites Applications for Oncomine Program

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Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO - Free Report) recently began accepting submissions for the Oncomine Clinical Research Grant program starting Jul 16, 2021. The applications will be reviewed and evaluated by independent and internationally recognized experts. The program is expected to award financial support worth $200,000 in reagents and general funding for select independent clinical research projects in oncology.

The grant is expected to bolster the company’s progress in the immunotherapy line. It will specifically support research projects focused on validating predictive biomarkers to detect patients eligible for immunotherapy-based drugs that improve outcomes for cancer patients.

Few Words on Oncomine Grant Program

The Oncomine Clinical Research Grant, launched in 2020, has been awarded to eight projects focused on research in fusion genes detection in solid cancer, hemato-oncology and other areas. A total of four proposals, including Stephen Fox, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia; Giulia Siravegna, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston; Beatriz Bellosillo, Hospital del Mar, Spain; and Leomar Y. Ballester, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX were awarded funding under the Oncomine program to support research in liquid biopsy.

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The latest grant to advance immunotherapy will aid researchers to use ascitic fluid as a source for predictive and prognostic biomarkers through efficient characterization of circulating free tumor DNA (ctDNA) isolated from ascites fluid in gastric cancer patients, and then compare it with matched peripheral blood ctDN.

Industry Prospect

Per a report published in MarketsandMarkets, the global immunotherapy drugs market is expected to see a CAGR of 11% during 2020-2025. Factors attributable to market growth include rising prevalence of target diseases including cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, infectious diseases and other therapeutic areas; increasing demand for monoclonal antibodies and biosimilars; increasing adoption of immunotherapy drugs and ease of authorization process for immune-based drugs.

Given the substantial market prospects, Thermo Fisher’s latest grant program to advance immunotherapy for cancer patients seems strategic and well-timed.

Notable Developments

Thermo Fisher engaged in a number of significant developments in June 2021.

Thermo Fisher launched an enhanced Quick to Clinic solution which leverages Gibco Freedom ExpiCHO, a robust process platform for biopharmaceutical companies developing mammalian recombinant proteins. Quick to Clinic will aid such emerging biopharma companies to reach Phase I/First-In-Human trials and file for Investigational New Drug review in just 13 months from transfection, thereby accelerating drug development for patients.

The company launched the Ion AmpliSeq SARS-CoV-2 Insight Research Assay in support of its recent partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to enable early detection of new and known SARS-CoV-2 variants.  The new assay is known to sequence more than 99% of the SARS-CoV-2 genome, thereby covering all potential serotypes.

Thermo Fisher partnered with Newomics to develop a novel native liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC−MS) platform that supports various LC−MS applications. The collaboration is expected to combine the company’s new-generation LC-MS systems and Newomics Microflow-nanospray Electrospray Ionization (MnESI) source in a MnESI-MS platform which provides a highly sensitive and reproducible analysis of nanospray applications, improves throughput for native MS analysis of large bioorganic complexes and maintains the native state of protein complexes during the MS analysis.

Share Price Performance

The stock has outperformed its industry over the past year. It has rallied 37.3% compared with the industry’s growth of 19.5%.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Currently, Thermo Fisher carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space include PetIQ, Inc. (PETQ - Free Report) , Computer Programs and Systems, Inc. and Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG - Free Report) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

PetIQ has a long-term earnings growth rate of 25%.

Computer Programs and Systems has a long-term earnings growth rate of 14%.

Intuitive Surgical has a long-term earnings growth rate of 9.40%.

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