NEW YORK, Oct. 8 — Ciphergen Biosystems and Pfizer said on Monday that they would collaborate on a predictive toxicology study using Ciphergen’s ProteinChip system and arrays. The study will aim to discover proteins in serum from rat models and to evaluate the relative importance and utility of such proteins as biomarkers associated with drug safety. Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
William Rich, president and CEO of Ciphergen, said that, if successful, he expects the collaboration to be expanded into a larger program. The work with Pfizer will be carried out in Ciphergen’s Biomarker Centers in California, Pennsylvania, and Denmark.
The ProteinChip system enables users to rapidly identify in animal and cell culture models multiple protein biomarkers and biomarker patterns that would be predictive of likely toxicity problems. Among Ciphergen’s existing ProteinChip customers are AstraZeneca, BASF, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, and Pharmacia.