Two RTP based firms have struck a deal to explore development of genetic-based controls for analysis of potential drug treatments.
Gentris and Tranzyme Pharma announced Thursday morning that they would work together to develop cell lines which could serve as genetic controls in diagnostic assays.
Gentris will provide genetic sequences and Tranzyme will use its biology and genet delivery technology. Should the results be successful, the companies will seek commercializing of the cell lines for FDA-approved drug assays.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We believe that Tranzyme’s expertise will help Gentris develop novel pharmacogenomic products that better address the needs of the clinical diagnostic market,” said Michael Murphy, president and CEO of Gentris, in a statement. “Although there is a natural occurrence of these rare mutations that lead to different responses to drug treatments, this collaboration will create genetic controls without the need to search through populations of individuals for these mutations. The outcome will be a collection of proprietary diagnostic controls for use in FDA-approved diagnostic kits that will reliably predict the metabolism of therapeutic compounds–a significant breakthrough for the pharmacogenomics industry.”
Added Vipin Garg, president and CEO of Tranzyme: “Our collaboration with Gentris is a unique application of Tranzyme’s functional biology capabilities in the area of pharmacogenomic standards for improving drug efficacy. This further builds on the multiple successful industry partnerships we have already established leveraging our functional biology platform for the creation of commercializable products to accelerate drug discovery and development.”
Gentris: www.gentris.com
Tranzyme: www.Tranzyme.com
