AltheaDx and Compendia Bioscience inked a deal to combine their capabilities in assay development, validation, and bioinformatics for cancer R&D. Their inaugural product launch is the Breast Cancer Segregation Panel™ assay.
The two companies will jointly create additional products and services focused on cancer biomarker discovery and subsequent development of tests that predict patient outcomes in clinical trials. They expect to release the next Segregation Panel assay for colorectal cancer in 2011.
The breast cancer test released today is a real-time PCR-based panel, optimized for the analysis of RNA extracted from FFPE tissues. The assay measures 96 genes identified in a meta-analysis of cancer genomic data from over 5,000 clinical samples.
AltheaDx will process and analyze samples in its San Diego-based CLIA/GLP laboratory. Compendia Bioscience will manage downstream data analysis and statistical correlation to patient outcomes in clinical trials.
“Compendia Bioscience is the recognized leader in translating cancer genomic data into meaningful information related to patient outcomes in clinical trials,” remarks Francois Ferre, AltheaDx’ co-founder and CEO. “Compendia’s powerful bioinformatics platform is providing highly valuable content around which we can develop predictive tests for our pharma partners.”
AltheaDx is involved in FFPE tissue-based biomarker discovery and companion diagnostic development. “AltheaDx has been a pioneering developer of PCR-based assays in clinical settings since its inception with very deep technical capabilities in genetic analysis,” according to Compendia Bioscience co-founder and CEO, Dan Rhodes.