Biomarker Commons

Arno Therapeutics, Inc. (OTCQB:ARNI), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of oncology therapeutics, recently announced that it has signed an agreement with Veridex, LLC, a Johnson & Johnson company, to develop a diagnostic test to detect the presence of activated progesterone receptors (APRs) as a potential biomarker of anti-progestin activity in circulating tumor cells (CTCs).

Critical Diagnostics announced recently that the Journal of Hypertension published a study titled, “Soluble ST2 Predicts Elevated SBP in the Community.” The results showed that a cohort of ostensibly healthy individuals, except for the presence of high levels of the biomarker ST2 in their blood, were almost twice as likely to develop hypertension in the future than those with low ST2 levels.

Ignyta, Inc. recently announced that it has acquired Actagene Oncology, Inc., effective May 20, 2013. Actagene was a San Diego based privately held biotechnology company founded in February 2013 that was developing personalized medicines for high unmet need cancer indications, based on cancer genome mining and sequencing.

Cenix BioScience, a leading preclinical contract research provider and technology developer specialized in RNAi-, miRNA- and high content-driven pharmacology, and Debiopharm Group™ (Debiopharm), a Swiss-based global biopharmaceutical group of companies with a focus on the development of prescription drugs that target unmet medical needs, including oncology and companion diagnostics, recently announced that they have signed a research agreement to support Debiopharm in its ongoing efforts to develop novel therapeutic drug candidates.

bioTheranostics, Inc., a leading provider of molecular diagnostic solutions for cancer, recently announced that 11 data presentations will be released during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting May 31–June 4, 2013, in Chicago. The studies highlight the clinical utility of the company’s CancerTYPE ID® assay and Breast Cancer IndexSM (BCI), with results supporting the role of these molecular tests in individualized treatment programs for cancer patients.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) recently announced that it presented a series of target-specific biomarkers that are being evaluated in the development of etirinotecan pegol for the treatment of breast cancer. Etirinotecan pegol is a unique, next generation, targeted topoisomerase I inhibitor currently in Phase 3 clinical development as a potential treatment for patients with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer.