Natera enters oncology research agreement with Merck

Natera (NTRA) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Merck (MRK), under which Merck will utilize Natera’s real-world database, or RWD, to advance oncology research. Natera’s oncology RWD contains de-identified clinical and genomic data from more than 100,000 early- and late-stage patients with cancer who have been tested with Signatera(TM), the company’s personalized and tumor-informed molecular residual disease (MRD) test. Longitudinal monitoring data is available for the majority of patients, providing an objective measure of molecular response to treatment and connected to a multi-modal database that includes clinical outcomes, genomic profiling, and imaging. Pharmaceutical companies can use Natera’s RWD to strategically advance drug development programs across early-stage and metastatic settings.