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news.Two French pharmaceutical companies, bioMerieux and ExonHit, have decided to extend an existing collaborative agreement for six years allowing them to further investigate diagnostics aimed at early cancer detection.
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The companies believe their diagnostic tests to be completely novel. They believe the tests could enable the detection of cancer from a simple blood sample and at a very early stage, before clinical symptoms appear, increasing the chances of successful therapy.
The alliance between bioMerieux and ExonHit was initiated in 2003 in connection with the development of a diagnostic test for breast cancer. The scope of the collaboration has now been enlarged to other types of cancers, including colon, prostate and lung cancers, for which a blood or tissue diagnostic is needed.
The objective of the extended collaboration is to develop DNA microarrays to detect genetic cancer markers in blood or tumor samples and is based on ExonHit’s strong expertise and intellectual property in the field of gene expression combined with bioMerieux’s know-how in the field of diagnostics.
Under the terms of the agreement, ExonHit grants bioMerieux an exclusive license to use its technology and bioMerieux funds ExonHit’s R&D costs for each cancer studied. In addition, ExonHit will receive milestone payments for each key-milestone that is reached as well as royalties on future product sales.
Bruno Tocque, CEO of ExonHit said; “What bioMerieux and ExonHit are capable of achieving together is a real breakthrough in the field of cancer diagnostics. From a single drop of blood, it will be possible to detect the early signs of several types of cancer.”