Laboratorios Ferrer and Oryzon Genomics Announce an Agreement to Develop Products for the Early Diagnosis and Prognosis of Colorectal Cancer
The pharmaceutical company Ferrer Internacional, the third Spanish pharma company and the Catalan biotech Oryzon Genomics announced today in Barcelona their agreement of technological collaboration to develop new products for early diagnosis and prognosis of colon cancer. The agreement will require an investment of almost one million euros just in the R&D phase and aims to improve the molecular tools for early diagnosis as well as for the prognosis of sporadic colorectal cancer.
CRC is a frequent cancer that affected in 2003 more than 300,000 people in
Europe and the U.S.A. In spite of a very long tumour development period, lasting
often for years ,the mortality related to the disease is high. The lack of
specificity and sensibility of the current diagnosis methods ( fecal blood
tests) explain this situation. Other techniques with high diagnosis value such
as colonoscopy cannot be extended for general screening due to associated risks
and cost for the health public systems. As a result, the diagnosis is often done
at advanced stages of the tumour development when the illness has a very poor
prognosis compared to early stages.
Carlos Buesa, Chief Executive Officer
of Oryzon genomics highlights: “the last advances in genomics, proteomics and
bioinformatics have opened a door to the development of new products for early
non-invasive diagnosis through the detection of early biomarkers. Our
collaboration with a Spanish leading company and of great international
potential such as Ferrer International is a basic reinforcement in our R&D
strategy in molecular diagnosis and represents an important step for our
strategy of alliances and collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry”.
Carlos de Lecea, head of business development of Ferrer has noted that “these
new diagnosis tools should allow to reduce the high tax of mortality associated
to this pathology. In this sense, we estimate that a diagnosis system such as
the one predicted could reduce mortality of this illness up to a 40% in the next
ten years. Ferrer, through its unit Ferrerfarma, bets firmly for the fields of
oncology and, in general, for advanced therapies. The collaborations with
different research companies, especially in the U.S.A., are allowing the
creation of a wide portfolio that from last generation rexinoids, therapeutic
vaccines for use in oncology, selective fusion proteins, and innovative support
Therapies, make of it a reference in this kind of medical advances.
The
project, which will last for 2 years in its R+D stage, has the collaborative
support of the Catalan Institute of Oncology and the College Hospital Vall
d’Hebrón as well as of clinic specialists recognised internationally. It will
imply the combined analysis by means of genomic and proteomic techniques of
hundreds of tumour samples. The results of the analysis will be studied by a
multidisciplinary team of up to 18 researchers from the four involved teams,
targeting both the early diagnosis and the prognosis of the
illness.
Ferrer Internacional, S.A.
Grupo Ferrer was born from an
existing chemical company that in 1959, as a result of the growing importance of
its activity came to change its name for Laboratoris Ferrer, and became Ferrer
Internacional, S.A. in 1975, society that finally became leader of Grupo Ferrer.
Nowadays, Grupo Ferrer is one of the main Spanish pharmaceutical companies and a
European partner for many leading multinationals in this sector.
Grupo
Ferrer has R+D centres in France, Germany and Spain, and participates in many
research projects together with different leading European and American
institutions. Grupo Ferrer integrates 30 companies that operate worldwide and
has diversified its activity to include sectors such as pharmacy, food science,
and fine chemistry, mainly focusing on the improvement of health and life
quality of people. Grupo Ferrer’s vocation is to offer products of the highest
scientific level oriented to the needs of the client together with health
formation programs to facilitate the access to the constant advances in the
medical and pharmacological areas, as well as a continuous adaptation to the
demands of health professionals, patients, and people in general.
Oryzon
Genomics, S.A.
Oryzon genomics, the first Spanish functional genomics
company, was founded in 2000 as a spin-off of the Spanish National Research
Council (CSIC) and the University of Barcelona. With a young, international and
interdisciplinary team of 35 scientists with our main lab sites based in the
Barcelona Science Park. A research centre of excellence homing more than 800
scientist and 20 companies. In 2004, Oryzon genomics reached break-even,
announced several important strategic alliances, filed three patent applications
and launched a joint-venture filial company in collaboration with two other
Spanish Biotech’s.
OG has developed a whole platform with complementary
advanced technologies to study gene function including, among others, analysis
of gene expression using whole genome or specialised DNA chips for a variety of
species. Where the necessary transcriptomes can be build up and the probe set
for any DNA chip can be generated with our own oligo design software (Tethys). A
new bioinformatics tool to manage expression and mutant data in an intuitive
environment representing the organism (Orymold), permits identification of
potentially interesting targets for their incorporation in projects of genetic
improvement. Finally we have proprietary developments in protein profiling as
well as the state of the art in proteomic approaches.
Spain with 42
million people is the 9th economy of the world and the 5th of Europe. With an
excellent universal healthcare system, its network of hospitals of excellence
provides market opportunities for biotechnological companies with profound local
knowledge and scientific network. Oryzon benefits from the collaborations with
the best Spanish Hospitals to identify diagnostic and prognostic markers in a
number of prevalent diseases. In this Biomarkers Dicovery area, our approach
is:
.-Focused on Cancer and Neurodegenerative diseases
.-Involving in a
collaborative effort the best Hospitals of Spain
.-Using combined Genomics,
Proteomics and Bioinformatics
.-Small to medium size projects ( less than 1M
euros in the R&D phase)
.-Co-development Projects. Oryzon invests
usually up to 20% of the R&D expenditures
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/4/prweb224591.htm