Under the deal Irish contract research organisation (CRO) Icon will work with the pharmacogenomics, drug disposition and drug targets specialist to cultivate a portfolio of service for application in identification of responder target populations, patient stratification and companion diagnostics.
Cyril Clarke, VP of translational medicine at Icon development solutions, told Outsourcing-Pharma that the company recognised a growing drug industry focus on predictive therapy.
He said: “The accelerating shift toward personalised medicine means recognizing that diseases and patients are complex and diverse and that the most effective treatments must be customized based on the patient.
“Identifying and interpreting genetic information allows important predictions to be made about a person's response to treatment.”
Empire CEO Anthony Johnson told Outsourcing-Pharma that together the partnership would provide solutions to increasingly complex early stage development programs, as well as in later stage trials to establish effectiveness.
“This question can be phrased as 'will it work versus does it work?'” said Johnson.
Come together
Clarke added that the ability to develop a drug compound and companion diagnostics simultaneously will allow payers to select patients who can benefit early on.
“The alliance with Empire will permit sponsors to seamlessly work on companion diagnostics from early-stage through commercialization of the diagnostic assays,” said Clarke
He continued: “Empire’s strategy is to launch diagnostic assays for customers.”
New frontiers
The partners will provide their services globally to both small and large pharma and biotech organisations spanning the development spectrum.
And for Empire, the deal with Icon – which works with clients in 36 countries – will open up new doors.
Speaking about the new opportunities the deal has afforded to New York, US, based Empire, Clarke said: “In addition to working with commercial drug development organizations, Icon also works with public-private consortia, such as the recent award from the Biomarkers Consortium of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) to provide clinical execution for their study to characterize the variability of insulin secretary parameters.”
However the pair remained silent about the exact biomarkers they would be measuring.
Johnson said only: “The specific biomarkers are largely driven by the disease and drug target. Empire’s expertise is working with clients to discover and validate novel biomarkers or custom versions of known biomarkers to meet the specific needs of the sponsor’s project.”