NEW YORK, June 19 - Toshiba and the Institute of Human Virology will study ways in which a pharmacogenomics technology developed by the Japanese electronics giant can be used to improve the efficacy of HIV drugs, the partners said today.
The project, funded by the state of Maryland and the Tokyo-based Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute, will rely on Toshiba's electrochemical DNA chip, which the company said is smaller, and thus less expensive, than similar technologies.
Around two years ago Toshiba participated in a study that applied the chip to hepatitis C. The HCV chip, developed with the GeneCare Research Institute, was designed to analyze SNPs rather than pinpoint gene exression, and was meant to help predict the effectiveness of interferon in individual patients. The company also intended it to help identify better treatment regimes. Toshiba and the IHV now hope to apply it HIV therapies.