PARTNERSHIP
FORMED TO EXPLORE PERSONALIZED MEDICINE APPROACH FOR AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL
SCLEROSIS (ALS) TREATMENTS
SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2013 – The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund
(ALS-ETF) and Denovo Biomarkers (Denovo) have announced a partnership to
explore using Denovo’s technology to identify potential responder groups for
drugs being studied in ALS patients. This personalized medicine approach may accelerate drug development in
ALS and other life-threatening disorders.
The
partnership will integrate Denovo’s pharmacogenomic technology into the
analysis of biological samples obtained from expanded access programs (EAP’s) that
ALS-ETF sponsors. By identifying genomic
biomarkers that correlate with patients’ responsiveness to treatment, the partners
seek to identify appropriate patient subsets for the conduct of subsequent
trials.
"This exciting relationship with
Denovo Biomarkers may accelerate the development of drugs for ALS and may help
us provide useful information for patients and physicians," said Jess
Rabourn, Managing Director of ALS-ETF. Dr. Wen Luo, Chief Scientific Officer for Denovo Biomarkers, noted,
"This partnership leverages the mission of ALS-ETF and the broad utility
of our platform. We hope that our combined efforts will lead to better, more
targeted treatments for ALS."
About The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund (ALS-ETF)
The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund,
headquartered in
San Francisco,
is a nonprofit company created to provide near-term treatment options to
sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal disease that
compromises patients’ ability to move, speak, swallow and breathe. ALS-ETF, under license from participating
pharmaceutical companies, and as authorized by FDA, implements Expanded Access
treatment programs (EAP’s) for investigational products in development for
ALS., ALS-ETF will also leverage data obtained via EAP’s to add scientific
value to the clinical development of each compound. By observing a
broader spectrum of patients than those typically in registration trials, EAP’s
may illuminate how subgroups of ALS patients respond to treatment, at different
stages of disease progression. Visit www.alsetf.org.
About Denovo
Biomarkers
Denovo
Biomarkers, based in
San Diego,
is a privately-held biotechnology company providing novel biomarker approaches
to personalized drug development. The company offers the industry's first
platform and algorithm for de novo
genomic biomarker discovery using archived clinical samples. This technology is
especially useful for compounds with suboptimal aggregate but heterogeneous
late-stage trial results. By identifying
biomarkers correlated with patients' response to drug candidates
retrospectively, Denovo enables biopharmaceutical manufacturers to design
follow-on clinical trials in targeted patient populations while optimizing
efficacy, safety and tolerability. Visit www.denovobiomarkers.com.
Contact:
Jess
Rabourn, The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund, jess.rabourn@alsetf.org, (415)
637-4774
Michael Haller, Denovo Biomarkers, mhaller@denovobiomarkers.com, (858) 876-4012