Date: 2014-12-10
Type of information: Collaboration agreement
Compound: new blood tests
Company: Abcodia (UK) Cancer Research UK (UK) Cancer Research Technology (CRT) (UK) Caprion (Canada) Asuragen (USA - TX) AIT Austrian Institute of Technology (Austria)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Diagnostic
Type agreement: R&D
development
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On June 6, 2013, Cancer Research UK and its commercial arm, Cancer Research Technology (CRT), have joined forces with Abcodia, the biomarker validation company with a focus on cancer screening, to develop new blood tests to detect a range of cancers when they are still at a very early stage. The strategic alliance will focus on biomarkers to detect cancers before patients develop symptoms, concentrating on cancers which currently have limited screening tests available, such as non-small cell lung cancer. The alliance is particularly interested in seeking markers that may be expressed in serum; for example, proteins, microRNAs – regulators of gene expression, exosomes ¬– cell-derived vesicles, autoantibodies – antibodies targeting an individual’s own proteins, and DNA methylation – a molecular switch to turn DNA on and off. Both genetic and acquired risk factors will also be investigated.
The partnership combines Cancer Research UK’s extensive clinical oncology and scientific network with Abcodia’s expertise in the longitudinal profiling of biomarkers, as well as its exclusive access to one of the world’s largest prospective collections of serum samples available for biomarker research. This collection is derived from the UK Collaborative trial for Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) run at University College London (UCL) and contains more than five million serum samples. The trial is part funded by Cancer Research UK.
The samples in the collection have been taken from healthy people annually and in many cases, up to 10 years prior to a cancer diagnosis. The collaboration will use these samples to select biomarkers which provide a clear indication of change in the early pre-diagnosis stages of disease.
Cancer Research UK, CRT and Abcodia will seek partnerships in the UK and internationally, with academic and commercial organisations which have leading-edge biomarker technology, to discover, validate and further develop the markers.
Financial terms: Abcodia and CRT will jointly commercialise any biomarkers discovered during the collaboration and share revenues resulting from potential licensing deals with additional third parties.
Latest news: * On December 10, 2014, three new biomarker companies have been selected to work with the Early Diagnosis Consortium, a collaboration between Cancer Research UK, its commercial arm, Cancer Research Technology, and Abcodia, a specialist company engaged in the validation of biomarkers for the early detection and screening of cancer. The decision follows completion of a pilot phase to evaluate leading technologies for their ability to discover biomarkers that can detect cancer in its earliest stages, long before symptoms appear, when treatment is most likely to be effective. The technologies were tested against serum samples selected from a biobank of more than five million serum samples, collected from women as part of the UKCTOCS trial*, to which Abcodia has exclusive commercial access. Based on these findings, the three companies involved will be Caprion which specialises in proteomics, Asuragen which uses next-generation sequencing to find circulating microRNAs, and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology using its tumour auto-antibodies platform.
This next stage of the programme will focus on identifying biomarkers for colorectal, lung, oesophageal and pancreatic cancers, chosen because of the limited availability of screening tests for these cancers and patients’ poor survival when diagnosed at a late stage.
