Partnership Formed to Explore Personalized Medicine Approach for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Treatments

Partnership Formed to Explore Personalized Medicine Approach for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Treatments

SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2013 -- The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund (ALS-ETF) and Denovo Biomarkers (Denovo) have announced a partnership to explore using Denovo's technology to identify potential responder groups for drugs being studied in ALS patients.  This personalized medicine approach may accelerate drug development in ALS and other life-threatening disorders.

The partnership will integrate Denovo's pharmacogenomic technology into the analysis of biological samples obtained from expanded access programs (EAP's) that ALS-ETF sponsors.  By identifying genomic biomarkers that correlate with patients' responsiveness to treatment, the partners seek to identify appropriate patient subsets for the conduct of subsequent trials. 

"This exciting relationship with Denovo Biomarkers may accelerate the development of drugs for ALS and may help us provide useful information for patients and physicians," said Jess Rabourn, Managing Director of ALS-ETF.  Dr. Wen Luo, Chief Scientific Officer for Denovo Biomarkers, noted, "This partnership leverages the mission of ALS-ETF and the broad utility of our platform. We hope that our combined efforts will lead to better, more targeted treatments for ALS."

About The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund (ALS-ETF)

The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund, headquartered in San Francisco, is a nonprofit company created to provide near-term treatment options to sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal disease that compromises patients' ability to move, speak, swallow and breathe.  ALS-ETF, under license from participating pharmaceutical companies, and as authorized by FDA, implements Expanded Access treatment programs (EAP's) for investigational products in development for ALS. ALS-ETF will also leverage data obtained via EAP's to add scientific value to the clinical development of each compound. By observing a broader spectrum of patients than those typically in registration trials, EAP's may illuminate how subgroups of ALS patients respond to treatment, at different stages of disease progression.  Visit www.alsetf.org.

About Denovo Biomarkers

Denovo Biomarkers, based in San Diego, is a privately-held biotechnology company providing novel biomarker approaches to personalized drug development. The company offers the industry's first platform and algorithm for de novo genomic biomarker discovery using archived clinical samples. This technology is especially useful for compounds with suboptimal aggregate but heterogeneous late-stage trial results.  By identifying biomarkers correlated with patients' response to drug candidates retrospectively, Denovo enables biopharmaceutical manufacturers to design follow-on clinical trials in targeted patient populations while optimizing efficacy, safety and tolerability. Visit www.denovobiomarkers.com.

Contact: 
Jess Rabourn, The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund, [email protected], (415) 637-4774 
Michael Haller, Denovo Biomarkers, [email protected], (858) 876-4012

 

SOURCE The ALS Emergency Treatment Fund

Web Site: http://www.alsetf.org