Iceland Genomics Corporation and ACLARA Collaborating on Cancer Biomarkers
December 02 2004 - 9:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Iceland Genomics Corporation and ACLARA Collaborating on Cancer
Biomarkers REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Iceland
Genomics Corporation (IGC) announced today that they have entered
into an agreement with ACLARA BioSciences (NASDAQ:ACLA) under which
ACLARA will utilize its proprietary eTag(TM) assays to analyze
tumor samples from cancer patients provided by IGC to validate
candidate biomarkers and their utility as indicators of disease
progression and as predictors of a likely response of individual
patients to particular therapies. Under the agreement, Iceland
Genomics will provide to ACLARA tumor and blood samples and blinded
patient data, including treatment histories and outcomes. ACLARA
will test the samples with its eTag assays to help validate the
parameters measured as biomarkers. ACLARA will provide funding to
IGC, and will share the data from the study with IGC for
incorporation into its database. Dana Hosseini, chief executive
officer of Iceland Genomics, said, "We believe ACLARA's eTag assays
offer a unique view of the molecular processes driving cell
proliferation and tumor growth. We are pleased to be collaborating
with ACLARA, and helping to demonstrate the tremendous potential
for eTag technology. There is clearly a need for better methods to
assess cancer patients, both from a preferred treatment and
ultimate prognosis perspective. We look forward to the results of
this study, and seeing how they correlate with other measures used
to evaluate these samples at Iceland Genomics." The biomarkers
under evaluation are proteins and protein complexes, and
importantly, their different functional or activation states that
comprise signaling pathways in cells. These pathways enable
information transfer within and between cells, and control such
processes as cell growth, division and death. When these pathways
malfunction, the affected cells can become cancerous, dividing
uncontrollably. Several approved targeted therapies, such as
Iressa(R), Herceptin(R) and Avastin(R), and many others in
development, act on the proteins within these pathways. By
measuring the targeted proteins and pathways directly, ACLARA
believes it can help physicians better determine whether certain
therapies are more appropriate for individual cancer patients. "We
are excited to be working with Iceland Genomics since the extensive
pedigrees of the Icelandic population, along with the detailed
patient histories and samples that IGC has collected, are a
powerful resource that can help facilitate answering critical
questions in medicine, and oncology in particular," said Sharat
Singh, ACLARA's chief technical officer. "With success, we look
forward to a potentially broader collaboration with IGC, and
ultimately to the utilization of these biomarkers in clinical
practice." ACLARA's eTag assays are able to identify
difficult-to-detect protein complexes that can provide unique
insights to the likelihood of particular patients to respond to
specific therapies. In addition, since eTag assays can utilize
formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded clinical samples, the standard
format in most pathology labs, this enables the analysis of both
archived samples from initial biopsies or surgeries as well as
freshly collected materials. About Iceland Genomics Corporation
Iceland Genomics Corporation (IGC) is a privately held cancer
biology company using an innovative 'clinical genomics' approach to
understand the underlying mechanisms of cancer, isolate and
characterize new therapeutic targets for cancer, assess outcomes of
specific therapies in genetically defined subcategories of cancer
patients and optimize clinical trials for success. IGC was
incorporated in the State of Delaware in October 1998, and is the
sole owner of an Icelandic subsidiary called UVS. IGC is one of
several genomics-based biotechnology companies operating in Iceland
and the only company that solely focuses on cancer biology. In
addition to its agreements with the great majority of clinicians in
Iceland actively engaged in treating cancer, the IGC also has
agreements with both major national hospitals and the Icelandic
Cancer Society (which is responsible for maintaining the National
Cancer Registry) as well as the Genetical Committee of the
University of Iceland. About ACLARA Founded in 1995, ACLARA is a
biotechnology company working to provide physicians and researchers
products and services to make personalized medicine a reality
through its protein-based assay technology -- the eTag(TM) System.
ACLARA is dedicated to unlocking the power of pathway biology to
accelerate the development of next-generation targeted
therapeutics, recognizing the most appropriate patients for
approved therapies and identifying the highly- specific,
protein-based biomarkers that will enable physicians to create
truly personalized treatment regimens for patients suffering from
cancer and other life-threatening disorders. ACLARA is
commercializing its proprietary eTag System to enhance and
accelerate drug discovery research and the preclinical and clinical
development of targeted therapeutics. ACLARA's technology may also
enable the development of highly specific, protein-based
diagnostics capable of providing physicians with a powerful tool
for creating personalized treatment regimens for patients suffering
from serious and difficult-to-treat cancers. For more information
on ACLARA please visit the Company's web site at
http://www.aclara.com/. Trademarks ACLARA BioSciences is a
registered trademark, and eTag and the ACLARA logo are trademarks
of ACLARA BioSciences, Inc. Iressa is a registered trademark of
AstraZeneca, and Herceptin and Avastin are registered trademarks of
Genentech, Inc. DATASOURCE: Iceland Genomics Corporation CONTACT:
Dana Hosseini, Chief Executive Officer of Iceland Genomics
Corporation, +354.525.3600, Web site: http://www.aclara.com/
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