Less than two weeks afterthe Supreme Court struck down its gene patents,Myriad Geneticshas moved on, inking an agreement withcancer-focused biopharmaceutical companyTesaroto conductBRCA1andBRCA2mutation testing on patients to be enrolled in two separate Phase III clinical studies evaluating the PARP inhibitorniraparib.
Tesaro's two Phase III clinical studies on niraparib include one in platinum-sensitive, high-grade serousovarian cancer patients, which is planned to begin enrolling patients in mid-2013; the other, involving metastaticbreast cancer patients who have germline BRCA mutations, is slated to begin during second half of 2013. Myriad's BRACAnalysistest, which can be used to detect BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations,will be used as a companion diagnostic to identify patients for these clinical trials.
"We believe this agreement reinforces BRACAnalysis as the gold standard companion diagnostic test for this exciting new class of therapeutics," said Peter Meldrum, president and CEO of Myriad Genetics. "This collaboration is yet another example of Myriad's strong commitment to becoming a leader in the field ofcompanion diagnostics."
