Compendia Bioscience and Althea Diagnostics Develop Breast Cancer Segregation Panel™ Assay as a Platform for Companion Diagnostic Development

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Compendia Bioscience today announced a new strategic partnership with Althea Diagnostics and the immediate availability of the partnership's first joint product and service offerings — the Breast Cancer Segregation Panel™ Assay and Analysis Service.  

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The Breast Cancer Segregation Panel measures 96 genes that represent key molecular variability of breast cancer and have been derived from a proprietary meta-analysis of cancer genomic profiles from more than 5,000 clinical samples. The assay has been optimized by Althea Diagnostics to measure the genes using quantitative RT-PCR from formalin-fixed tissue (FFPE) samples to enable rapid translation to real-world clinical settings.

Compendia Bioscience will analyze the data generated by the assay and will perform correlation studies to end-points of interest — such as drug response. This will allow for development of multiple drug-specific companion diagnostics from a standardized platform.

"This addresses a critical concern," said Scott Tomlins, M.D., Ph.D., a scientific advisor from the University of Michigan. "Clinicians could soon become overwhelmed by the number of molecular diagnostics entering the market, each requiring precious tissue samples. A standard assay that could be used to address a number of different clinical questions will be highly valuable to the field. We are hopeful that future studies will prove the utility of Compendia's approach."

The partnership leverages the unique expertise of each company. Compendia Bioscience is a recognized leader in the cancer genomics data collection, curation and analysis. Althea Diagnostics has a long pedigree in gene quantification from FFPE samples and is a leading provider of diagnostic development services for pharmaceutical companies.

"We are excited to announce this new partnership with Althea Diagnostics," said Dan Rhodes, Ph.D., Compendia's co-founder and CEO. "We have been looking for the right partner to develop our breast segregation panel technology and have been pleased by the rapid progress from our joint development team with Althea."

Althea Diagnostics CEO, François Ferre, Ph.D., said, "Compendia has such a strong scientific presence within cancer drug discovery and development companies that it was an easy choice to partner with them. They are thought-leaders in the application of cancer genomics and we are thrilled by this new and productive partnership."

The companies have also announced that they plan to develop similar assays for other cancer disease types. The companies have begun development of a Colon Segregation Panel™ assay, which will be available in 2011.

About Compendia Bioscience, Inc.

Compendia Bioscience is dedicated to applying the global collection of cancer genomic data to impact patient treatment by enabling the discovery and development and better cancer diagnostics and treatments. www.compendiabio.com

SOURCE Compendia Bioscience, Inc.