Partners will work to identify biomarkers to aid patient stratification.

Kinaxo Biotechnologies signed an agreement with Bayer Vital to discover biomarkers that can be used to distinguish which acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients would be better suited to Nexavar® treatment in clinical investigations. Kinaxo will apply its quantitative phosphoproteomics platform, PhosphoScout®.

The technology will be used to determine the effects of Nexavar, a multikinase inhibitor, on cellular phosphorylation patterns and to identify novel predictive markers. It will also be used to investigate combination therapies including Nexavar in the hope of identifying individualized therapeutic strategies against malignant diseases such as AML.

Kinaxo claims its PhosphoScout™ quantitative phospho-proteomics service allows the annotation and quantification of regulated phosphorylation sites in living cells, animal models, and patient samples. The technology uses quantitative mass spectrometry to analyze proteome-wide in vivo phosphorylation patterns as a means to investigate cellular signal transduction pathways and their responses to drug treatment.

Nexavar is approved in over 70 countries for treating liver cancer and advanced kidney cancers. The drug is also being evaluated by partners Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals and Onyx Pharmaceuticals as a single agent and as combination therapy in a wide range of other malignancies.

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