NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) - Singulex said today that it has secured a Phase II Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research contract from the National Cancer Institute to develop biomarker assays to determine the effectiveness of potential cancer therapeutics.
The agreement extends a contract with NCI that Singulex originally signed in November 2007.
In Phase I of the SBIR, the company developed an assay to detect the VEGF protein, which is implicated in many cancers. The company said that its VEGF assay “overcomes the limitations of traditional biomarker detection technologies and allows drug developers to see normal levels of VEGF in blood and assess the efficacy of anti-VEGF drugs.”
In Phase II of the contract, the company said it plans to develop 12 more assays for different biomarkers “that will provide insights into drug efficacy in additional oncology areas."
The oncology assays developed with the NCI SBIR funds will be available to the company’s collaborators, which include Washington University and Sigma Aldrich.