Spain's Integromics Opens US HQ in Philly ScienceCenter
Integromics, a life sciences software company based in Granada, Spain, has opened its US headquarters at the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, the company said this week.
The company said it has expanded into the US in order to be closer to current and prospective customers and business partners.
Integromics said the new office will include sales and marketing, scientific, and customer support staff.
Howard Bilofsky, a senior fellow in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania and a former senior executive at GlaxoSmithKline, will serve as vice president of the company and lead US operations.
The company offers data management, integration, and analysis solutions for public and private life sciences customers.
Integromics said that the University Science Center offers a “Soft-Landing Program” that assists international companies seeking to expand into the US market by providing space, funding, and "domestic market expertise."
Perlegen, 454 Partner in Drug Response Re-sequencing Study
Perlegen and 454 Life Sciences will collaborate on a project to re-sequence “hundreds” of human DNA samples with the goal of developing a test to predict how patients will respond to a certain class of drug.
Perlegen said it has collected samples from individuals with specific responses to a “widely prescribed” class of drug. The partners intend to identify and validate genetic variations that could be developed into a clinical test that would predict response to the drug family.
Under the agreement, the companies will re-sequence portions of genomes from the samples using 454 sequencing and Perlegen's sample-prep and amplification technologies.
The companies' data analysis groups will work together to determine to what extent genetic variations influence patient response to this class of drugs.
Perlegen did not divulge the name of the drug class involved in the study, but said the research "holds the promise to improve therapeutic outcomes for a vast number of patients."
Financial terms of the agreement were not released.
Sanofi-Aventis, NCI Renew Licenses for Genomatix Microarray Software
Genomatix said last week that Sanofi-Aventis has renewed its multi-site license for the firm’s Microarray Analysis Pipeline software.
The software analyzes data for a number of micorarray applications, including gene expression, tiling microarrays, and ChIP-on-chip studies.
Sanofi-Aventis originally licensed the company’s GenomatixSuite software in 2005. Financial terms of the agreement were not released.
Separately, Munich, Germany-based company said that the National Cancer Institute has renewed and extended a software licensing agreement with Genomatix Software’s US subsidiary.
Genomatix said the agreement marks the fourth consecutive year of the license with NCI.
“We are extremely pleased with our progress in putting the US company on its feet, and the renewal with NCI/NIH is a huge step in firmly establishing our presence here”, said Peter Grant, CEO of the US company, in a statement.
Specific terms of the agreement with the NCI were not released.
BioMicro Systems Closes Series B Funding, Plans to Broaden Product Line
BioMicro Systems said last week it has closed a round of Series B financing with investors vSpring, Nanostart, and Staley Capital Advisors.
BioMicro, which markets the MAUI hybridization product line said the new investments bring the total it has raised since inception to $10 million. Company CEO Michael Feldman said BioMicro plans to use the money to "broaden our product portfolio to include Kreatech reagents, Arrayjet microarrayers and soon-to-be-announced new products."
Feldman told BioArray News in May that BioMicro had a wash system in beta-testing that could become available in the third or fourth quarter (see BAN 5/22/2007).
Agendia Joins Personalized Medicine Coalition
Dutch diagnostics maker Agendia said last week that it has joined the Personalized Medicine Coalition, a consortium focused on public policy and regulatory issues related to the adoption of personalized medicine.
Agendia makes MammaPrint, an in vitro diagnostic multivariate index assay for breast cancer recurrence that was the first such test to be cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Now that the Amsterdam-based firm is marketing the test in the US, "we believe it is now time to actively participate in the discussion about the implementation of personalized medicine in the US," company CEO Bernhard Sixt said in a statement.