IN THIS ISSUE - CASE STUDY

By Malorye Allison

Many types of companies are betting biomarkers will accelerate drug development, but the biggest frontier for their use is oncology. Now, a new wave of compounds, such as Exelixis’ XL880, Avalon’s AVN944, and SuperGen’s MP470, are starting to demonstrate when and how such markers are the most useful.

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STRATEGY

ARIAD Lifted on $1B Anticancer Deal with
Merck & Co.

By Laurie Sullivan

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and Merck & Co. recently announced their $1-billion collaboration to develop and commercialize AP23573, ARIAD’s novel mTOR inhibitor, for use in cancer. We talked to Timothy P. Clackson, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at ARIAD, who explained why mTOR is such an important target. Clackson also described what the alliance with Merck signifies for the future of AP23573 and for ARIAD in general.

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NEWS BRIEFS

Thirty companies, non-profit trade associations, and advocacy groups, now hold ontributing membership in The Biomarkers Consortium.　 To date, these organizations have committed an aggregate of nearly $2 million to fund the first year of the central activities of the consortium which is managed be the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. read more

Illumina, Inc. announced a large-scale collaboration with the Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania, the Broad Institute, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Candidate-gene Association REsource (CARe) Consortium to develop a customized chip for vascular disease. (July 23) read more

The Wall Street Journal reports that the choice of Severin Schwan as the next CEO at Roche points to a new emphasis on diagnostics there. (July 20) read more (subscribers only)

The Wall Street Journal reports that the House Judiciary Committee has passed a "sweeping overhaul of U.S. patent laws…" Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies were generally opposed to the changes proposed. (July 19) read more (subscribers only).

Pfizer announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) issued a positive opinion recommending marketing authorization for Celsentri (maraviroc), the first CCR5 antagonist for use in combination with other antiretroviral agents for treatment-experienced adult patients where only CCR5-tropic virus is detectable. (July 19) read more

Affymetrix and Children's Research Institute in Milwaukee have entered a five-year strategic alliance to analyze up to 25,000 genomic samples. Scientists at Children's Research Institute will use Affymetrix technology to analyze the genomic information of consenting patients. (July 17) read more

Panacea Pharmaceuticals has launched LC Detect, a serum-based lung cancer diagnostic test the company says should facilitate the identification of lung cancer, even among individuals with early-stage disease. (July 17) read more

A genome-wide association study published in Nature online has linked a new genetic variation in KIAA0350 with type 1 diabetes. The study was conducted at Children’s Hospital of Philadephia and McGill University. (July 15) read more (abstract only)

Point-of-Care Diagnostics, August 14-15, Washington DC

New Applications for MDA, August 15-17, Washington DC
Integrating Genetics with "Omics"

CELLutions Summit, August 20-23, Boston, Mass.
The Future of Stem Cell Sciences

Targeted Immunotherapeutics & Vaccines Summit, August 21-24, Boston, Mass.