Ideagen Signs Deal with Blaze Bioscience

Nov 12, 20

Leading global provider of software products to companies operating in highly regulated industries, Ideagen Plc, has announced a new customer for Qualsys, the eQMS product which is now part of the Q-Pulse suite of products.

Blaze Bioscience, The Tumor Paint Company®, formed in 2010 in Seattle, is a privately held biotechnology company that is developing leading edge products for the treatment of cancer. The company’s co-founder, Dr Jim Olson, a paediatric neuro-oncologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre and Seattle Children’s Hospital, is an inventor and pioneer of a revolutionary technology known as Tumor Paint.

Blaze Bioscience’s first Tumor Paint product is a variation of a scorpion venom mini-protein which acts as a Trojan Horse to get a fluorescent dye into tumor cells.  This makes the cancer cells glow. Tumor Paint is injected into the patient’s body before surgery and lights up the affected areas so that the surgeon can more easily identify and remove all of the cancer cells while leaving behind as much healthy tissue as possible. The technique has already been used successfully in over 150 cases.  The goal for Tumor Paint is for operations to both take far less time than they would have done without Tumor Paint while at the same time improving outcomes.

Cassie Schultz of Blaze Bioscience explained why the purchase of Q-Pulse is important to their business: “Blaze is a small but quickly growing business. We operate in a highly specialised and regulated field and the integrity of our data, compliance with regulations and security of information is vital for us.

“In the early days the product will be used for Quality Assurance and migrating our paper-based quality management system into an electronic system.  As the company grows, we look forward to expansion and potential system collaborations across the organisation as needed.

“Q-Pulse was chosen based on a number of factors, but one of the most important was the fit between the two companies.  Numerous companies have comprehensive products representing industry best practices, however the method of how Ideagen has organized their product offering and the methods used to implement and support a small and growing organization looking towards commercialization were key factors.”   

Alex Swan, Senior Business Development Manager at Ideagen, said: “We are very excited to be able to announce Blaze Bioscience as our latest customer. The business is doing incredible work to improve outcomes for patients, especially children, with brain cancer and we are proud to be able to play a tiny part in helping them on their journey.  Using the latest version of Qualsys, which is now integrated into the industry leading Q-Pulse suite of products, will reduce the time they have to spend on the paperwork required to show compliance with regulations and that will give these brilliant people more time to concentrate on saving lives!”

In September, Ideagen Plc announced the acquisition of Qualsys as part of the business’ strategy to grow by geographical and technical expertise.