Preclinical services news in brief
services arena, new deals have emerged involving Immunicon,
Novartis, Southern Research Institute and Absorption Systems.
It is a happy time for US firm Immunicon Corporation, which managed to bag two new service contracts with Swiss drug heavyweight Novartis. Financial terms of both, however, remain undisclosed.
Under a new research services agreement, Immunicon will develop a family of biomarkers associated with circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that may be useful in determining the efficacy of certain cancer therapies in the Novartis preclinical pipeline.
"The list of biomarkers not only includes assessment of the presence or absence of the target, but also the modulation status of certain targets, which makes it quite interesting," said Leon Terstappen, chief scientific officer of Immunicon.
A second laboratory master services agreement was also made between the two firms, under which Immunicon will perform laboratory services in connection with various Novartis cancer drug development programs.
The first study involves the calculation of CTCs and assessment of apoptosis (cell death), while a second study will assess the relationship between CTC counts and expression of HER-2/neu at both the protein and the gene levels, said the firm.
To assist in this process, Immunicon will be using its CellTracks automation system for sample preparation.
The company signed similar agreements last year with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, MolMed and Eisai.
"We are now working on advanced applications of our CellTracks technologies with many leading pharmaceutical companies," said Byron Hewett, president and CEO of Immunicon.
"We believe that our development work will advance the understanding of cancer biology as well as accelerate the time to market for promising new drugs."
In other preclinical news, non-profit drug discovery firm Southern Research Institute (SRI) and bioanalytical services provider Absorption Systems have forged a new partnership together.
The two US companies will now work together in providing toxicology and bioanalytical contract research services to biopharma firms, with an extension into business development, marketing and scientific publication.
SRI has a particular expertise in toxicology and drug development services, while Absorption Systems' experience lies in bioanalytical services, metabolite profiling and preclinical formulation.
"This relationship will allow both companies to leverage individual strengths for the benefit of our clients by generating better and faster study data as new drugs move forward," said Tina Rogers, vice president of SRI's drug development division.
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
