RARITAN, N.J., Jan. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Veridex, LLC
(Veridex) today announced a collaboration with Massachusetts
General Hospital to develop and commercialize a next-generation
circulating tumor cell (CTC) technology for capturing, counting and
characterizing tumor cells found in patients’ blood. The
collaboration will involve Ortho Biotech Oncology Research &
Development (ORD), a unit of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical
Research & Development. It focuses on the development of
a next-generation system that will enable CTCs to be used both by
oncologists as a diagnostic tool for personalizing patient care, as
well as by researchers to accelerate and improve the process of
drug discovery and development.
The collaboration will rely on the collective scientific,
technical, clinical, and commercial expertise between the partners:
Massachusetts General Hospital’s experience in clinical research
and novel CTC technologies; the experience of Veridex as the only
diagnostics company to have brought CTC technology to the U.S.
market as an FDA-cleared in vitro diagnostic (IVD) assay for
capturing and counting the number of tumor cells in the blood to
help inform patients and their physicians about prognosis and
overall survival in certain types of metastatic cancers; and ORD’s
expertise in oncology therapeutics, biomarkers and companion
diagnostics.
“This new technology has the potential to facilitate an
easy-to-administer, non-invasive blood test that would allow us to
count tumor cells, and to characterize the biology of the cells,”
said Robert McCormack, Head of Technology Innovation and Strategy,
Veridex. “Harnessing the information contained in these cells
in an in vitro clinical setting could enable tools to help
select treatment and monitor how patients are responding.”
“The role of CTCs in drug discovery and development is growing
as new technologies allow us to use CTCs for the first time a
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