Foundation Medicine, Inc. is an American company based in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, which develops, manufactures, and sells genomic profiling assays based on

next-generation sequencing Massive parallel sequencing or massively parallel sequencing is any of several high-throughput approaches to DNA sequencing using the concept of massively parallel processing; it is also called next-generation sequencing (NGS) or second-generation ...

technology for solid tumors,

hematologic malignancies Tumors of the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues (American English) or tumours of the haematopoietic and lymphoid tissues (British English) are tumors that affect the blood, bone marrow, lymph, and lymphatic system. Because these tissues are all ...

, and

sarcoma A sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that arises from cells of mesenchymal origin. Originating from mesenchymal cells means that sarcomas are cancers of connective tissues such as bone, cartilage, muscle, fat, or vascular tissues. Sarcom ...

History

Foundation Medicine was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was conceived after

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...

researchers Levi Garraway and Matthew Meyerson published a 2007 paper detailing a method for large-panel testing of 238 DNA

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

s. Foundation Medicine launched in 2010 with a $25 million Series A financing led by Third Rock Ventures. The company released its first commercial assay, or test, called FoundationOne in 2012. The company also began partnering with pharmaceutical companies to analyze patient samples. The first such program was piloted with

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...

in 2011, and by 2018, the company had more than 30 partnerships. Foundation Medicine launched its second test, a hematological

biomarker In biomedical contexts, a biomarker, or biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition. Biomarkers are often measured and evaluated using blood, urine, or soft tissues to examine normal biological processes, ...

assay called FoundationOneHeme, in 2013. The company held its initial public offering in August 2013. The following year, Priority Health in Michigan became the first healthcare plan in the United States to cover the company's tests. In 2016, using FoundationCore data, Foundation Medicine released anonymized records detailing genomic data on cancers from 18,000 adult patients to the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

's (NCI) Genomic Data Commons (GDC) portal. In 2018, Roche acquired Foundation Medicine (via acquisition of the remaining 42.5% of Foundation Medicine for $2.4 billion), and currently operates it as a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

. Guardant Health sued Foundation Medicine over

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s in 2019–2020. In 2021, Guardant Health licensed

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

to Foundation Medicine for $25 million in a settlement.

Products

Foundation Medicine's products include genomic tests for solid tumors and blood-based cancers and sarcomas, as well as data services. *FoundationOne CDx is a CGP test providing information for five tumor types: ovarian, lung, breast, colorectal, and melanoma. *FoundationOne Liquid *FoundationOne Heme *The company's FoundationCore database contains more than 300,000 genomic profiles sourced from the results of the company's assays as well as information on over 150 subtypes of cancer.

References

External links

* {{official website, www.foundationmedicine.com Roche Biotechnology companies of the United States Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Genomics companies Health care companies based in Massachusetts