| Bayer-Schering And Prometheus Enter Research License Agreement |
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17/03/2010 13:04 (696 Day 23:20 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany, has entered a research collaboration and license agreement with Prometheus Laboratories Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical and diagnostic company.
According to Bayer, the collaboration partners will combine Prometheus’ proprietary oncology diagnostic platform with Bayer Schering Pharma’s broad oncology pipeline in an effort to stratify patients to appropriate drug candidates. Using this diagnostic platform, Bayer Schering Pharma aims to analyze the expression level and activation status of certain tumor targets serving as biomarkers in both preclinical and clinical studies for patient stratification. This could also speed up the development of novel products in the field of oncology therapy.
“A functional pathway analysis based on Prometheus’ oncology diagnostic platform could allow a comprehensive analysis of the tumor, patient stratification, and the efficacy predictability of not only individual targeted cancer therapeutics, but also of most effective treatment combinations,” said Prof. Andreas Busch, Head of Global Drug Discovery and Member of the Board of Management at Bayer Schering Pharma. “Developing such a diagnostic tool constitutes a significant step toward personalized medicine in cancer treatment, and we are convinced that this will increasingly become the standard of clinical care in oncology.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Prometheus will receive an upfront payment, research and development support, and testing fees, as well as potential additional payments if certain development milestones are reached. Prometheus will be eligible for milestone payments of up to $160 million depending on the number of drug candidates successfully developed.
“This collaboration represents a pioneering relationship between drug development and personalized medicine, and demonstrates the potential of our emerging diagnostic platform,” said Joseph M. Limber, President and Chief Executive Officer of Prometheus. “We believe our technology is a powerful tool to complement the robust oncology pipeline at Bayer Schering Pharma to help select patients who will benefit the most from specific drug candidates, to design more efficient clinical trials, to increase the probability of success and ultimately to improve the potential outcome for patients.”
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