Foundation Medicine

Foundation Medicine, Inc. is an American company based in Boston, Massachusetts, which develops, manufactures, and sells genomic profiling assays based on next-generation sequencing technology for solid tumors, hematologic malignancies, and sarcomas.[2]

History

Foundation Medicine was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[3] The company was conceived after Broad Institute researchers Levi Garraway and Matthew Meyerson published a 2007 paper detailing a method for large-panel testing of 238 DNA mutations.[4]

Foundation Medicine launched in 2010 with a $25 million Series A financing led by Third Rock Ventures.[5] The company released its first commercial assay, or test, called FoundationOne in 2012.[6] The company also began partnering with pharmaceutical companies to analyze patient samples.[4] The first such program was piloted with Novartis in 2011,[5] and by 2018, the company had more than 30 partnerships.[7]

Foundation Medicine launched its second test, a hematological biomarker assay called FoundationOneHeme, in 2013.[8] The company held its initial public offering in August 2013.[9] The following year, Priority Health in Michigan became the first healthcare plan in the United States to cover the company's tests.[10]

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's (NCI) Genomic Data Commons (GDC) portal.[11]

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.[12][13]

Guardant Health sued Foundation Medicine over patents in 2019–2020.[14][15] In 2021, Guardant Health licensed intellectual property to Foundation Medicine for $25 million in a settlement.[16]

In 2024, Foundation Medicine moved its headquarters from Cambridge to a newly built tower in Boston’s Seaport District, consolidating their Massachusetts employees from four locations into one location.[17]

Products

Foundation Medicine's products include genomic tests for solid tumors and blood-based cancers and sarcomas,[18] as well as data services.

• FoundationOne CDx is a CGP test providing information for five tumor types: ovarian, lung, breast, colorectal, and melanoma.[19]
• FoundationOne Liquid.
• FoundationOne Heme.[8]
• 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.[20]

External links