SBI will supply firm with raw materials.
Arup Laboratories will develop a specialized test for measuring serum concentrations of the cancer chemotherapeutic agent busulfan (Busulfex®, Myleran®) using Saladax Biomedical’s (SBI) antibodies against busulfan and other raw materials under a multiyear licensing agreement.
Arup says that it will be the first reference laboratory to offer a busulfan blood level monitoring test based upon antibodies rather than physical methods, such as HPLC. “Today testing is so labor-intensive that in many cases, results are obtained by oncologists too late in their patients’ therapy to adjust dosing to the optimal therapeutic range,” says Arup’s president and COO, Ronald L. Weiss, M.D. “Saladax’ antibodies will enable Arup to offer a timely result without sacrificing accuracy, thus providing higher clinical utility.”
Saladax will supply Arup with the raw materials required to develop and validate a microtiter plate assay to measure the concentrations of busulfan in the bloodstream of patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoeitic stem cell transplant for chronic myelogenous leukemia.
The SBI library of Mabs against busulfan are the first ever generated, points out SBI chairman and CEO, Salvatore J. Salamone, Ph.D. “Our antibodies have been developed to be ideally suited for blood level monitoring insofar as they are specific to the active form of the drug and do not cross-react with any known metabolites.”
