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A ‘sea
change’ in the desert
August 2013
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
PHOENIX—
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen)
and Tucson,
Ariz.-based Ventana Medical Systems Inc. are taking advantage of
their relatively neighboring locations and combining their skills in a
collaborative research effort announced this summer to discover and develop
diagnostic markers for treating cancer. As the two organizations put it in
their news release, two of "Arizona's premier biomedical institutions …
will
leverage each other's expertise in discovery and diagnostic product
development, bringing innovative cancer diagnostic tests to patients."
The two parties are set for the first project under the
umbrella research agreement to focus on
diagnostic, prognostic and drug
biomarkers for pancreatic cancer, the fourth-leading cause of death from cancer
in the United States. This year, they
note, an estimated 45,000 people will be
diagnosed with the disease, and more than 38,000 patients will die from it.
Across the globe, some 213,000 are
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year,
and, they say, "the numbers are growing. Fewer than one in four pancreatic
cancer patients survive more
than a year, and fewer than 6 percent survive more
than five years—the worst survival rate of any cancer."
The reason for this "dismal picture of pancreatic cancer,"
as they call it, is mainly due to the lack of tools for early
detection and the
ineffectiveness of current therapeutics.
This is why new diagnostic markers and more efficacious
therapies are desperately
needed, points out Mara G. Aspinall, president of
Ventana, which is a member of the Roche Group.
"Why is this the right time for TGen and Ventana to do this?
From a
certain point of view, it's because of the acknowledgement from pharma
companies and regulatory agencies that companion diagnostics, which have been
on the rise in recent years, are not simply nice to have, but absolutely
necessary to have," she tells DDNEWS.
"We've really expanded out
our companion diagnostic efforts and with the
growing urgency from pharmas and agencies to get these discovered and validated
and ready for clinics, it
has compelled us to go find the very best
researchers. We have a fantastic team but we recognize we cannot do it all
ourselves, and so that has pushed
us to be more aggressive in partnering with
great organizations like TGen."
"The requirements
that we have for meeting FDA expectations
and to work with investigational agents—and the way it all carries into the
area of genomic profiling—means
that we have to be integrated," adds Dr.
Jeffrey Trent, TGen's president and research director. "More and more, you need
trials that combine the
genomics and the investigational agents. There's no way
around it, and the best way to do it is closer partnerships between academic
and nonprofit
research groups and industry to get more meaningful data out of
these studies all the way around."
The timing of the deal isn't just about market forces, Trent
says, but also "aligning well with regulatory actors that can help us succeed
or
not."
And, Aspinall adds, aside from the "major sea change from
only five years ago" in terms
of positive attitudes toward companion
diagnostics, it doesn't hurt that the drive between the TGen and Ventana
campuses is relatively short, so they
can work together more directly, more
effectively and more quickly.
Ventana designs and
manufactures instruments and reagents
that automate tissue processing and slide staining for cancer diagnostics, and
its solutions are used in clinical
histology and drug development research
laboratories worldwide. The company says that its intuitive, integrated
staining, workflow management platforms
and digital pathology solutions
optimize laboratory efficiencies to reduce errors, support diagnosis and inform
treatment decisions for anatomic
pathology professionals.
"When a patient is faced with cancer, getting an accurate
diagnosis
quickly is the most important part of their treatment," Aspinall said
of her company and the collaboration in the news release about the deal. "As
the global leader in tissue-based cancer diagnostics, our strength is moving
research into the clinic in order to improve the lives of all patients
afflicted with cancer. We are thrilled to be able to pursue this with a partner
right in our Arizona backyard."
For its part, TGen is a nonprofit organization focused on
helping patients with neurological disorders, cancer and diabetes
through
translational research, with TGen physicians and scientists working to unravel
the genetic components of both common and rare complex diseases
in adults and
children.
"TGen is on the cutting edge of translational research,
where
investigators discover the genetic components of disease," Trent noted in
the news release. "Our goal is to rapidly translate basic research findings
into actionable targets. Partnering with Ventana, we hope, will accelerate our
goal to deliver meaningful discoveries to cancer patients today."
Code: E081313 Back |
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