Immunicon this week announced that it has signed a laboratory services and biomarker assay development pact with Merck Serono, the Geneva-based unit of Germany’s Merck KGaA.
Under the deal, Immunicon will develop specialized biomarker assays based on circulating tumor cells for an early clinical drug study. Immunicon said the new assays could potentially help doctors identify patients who have a high probability of responding to the drug being developed by Merck Serono.
“The ability to interrogate the extremely rare circulating cells once isolated from peripheral blood gives unprecedented opportunities to see real-time what is happening with tumor cells in patients upon exposure to investigational drugs,” Leon Terstappen, chief scientific officer of Immunicon, said in a statement.
Terms of the alliance were not disclosed.