NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Exiqon yesterday announced that it has exclusively licensed two sets of microRNA-based prostate cancer biomarkers from Denmark's Aarhus University Hospital.
One biomarker profile relates to urine-based, non-invasive diagnosis of prostate cancer; the other set of biomarkers comes from tissue samples and is relevant to patient stratification for improved treatment selection. Exiqon said in a statement that it will validate the biomarkers in both retrospective and prospective studies.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Exiqon CFO Hans Christensen told GenomeWeb in an email that the patient stratification biomarkers are complementary to epigenetic markers acquired from Aarhus University Hospital in 2014 in a separate exclusive licensing agreement. The biomarkers could be used to develop a test that can help avoid overtreatment of non-aggressive prostate cancer, he said.