In a bid to propel personalized medicine into everyday use, Biodesix may have hit pay dirt. The company's recently concluded Phase III trial appears to show that its lung cancer blood diagnostic successfully predicts treatment outcomes for two different therapies.
The Colorado company says its PROSE trial, involving 285 patients, showed the versatility of its VeriStrat test, a blood-based protein diagnostic. According to the company's results, it helped predict treatment outcomes between chemotherapy or the drug erlotinib (Tarceva, by Roche/Astellas) as second-line weapons against advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.
Details came out at the annual ASCO meeting in Chicago.
More research is needed to be sure the results continue to bear out. But lead investigator Vanesa Gregorc said in a statement that the data so far points to the test's versatility and effectiveness as a molecular diagnostic to help guide second-line lung cancer treatment--options for patients for whom a first-line treatment failed.
Erlotinib is an EGFR-TKI drug thought to work best in patients who have an EGFR mutation. The test is designed to identify patients who could benefit from the drug who don't have a known EGFR mutation or who have an unknown EGFR mutation status. In turn, the test also helps spot a large chunk of patients who won't benefit from the drug and direct them more quickly to chemo.
In April, Biodesix pulled in another $8.8 million in financing, designed, in part, to help the company finish its Phase III trial. The funding is meant to help the company expand sales and marketing work for the test and propel additional research.
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