NEW YORK – GeneCentric Therapeutics said today that it has acquired Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based Select ImmunoGenomics, a provider of advanced immunogenomic, data analysis, and biomarker development services to help develop immuno-oncology drugs.
According to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based GeneCentric, the acquisition will provide the combined firm with integrated RNA-based tools to enhance drug development by identifying the right patients for oncology drugs, improving response rates and durability as well as eventually patient outcomes.
Cofounded by University of North Carolina researchers Benjamin Vincent and Joel Parker, Select ImmunoGenomics worked with clients at research, diagnostics, and drug development organizations. Vincent and Parker will serve as advisors to GeneCentric.
"GeneCentric's strengths in bioinformatics and RNA-based informatics are a natural fit with our immuno-therapeutics' focus," Vincent said in a statement. He believes that Select ImmunoGenomic's computational genomics and systems biology approaches address the challenge of identifying which drugs will benefit specific patients, in addition to applying "genomics to develop more effective cancer therapies."
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
"There is growing recognition that many factors beyond gene mutations contribute to drug response, including gene expression, activation, and signaling pathways as well as adaptive and innate immune status," GeneCentric Cofounder and Executive Chair Myla Lai-Goldman said in a statement. "Integration of both companies' technologies will uniquely allow us to capture the complexity of tumor biology in predictive response signatures to accelerate and add value to our partners' drug-development programs."
GeneCentric is also about to begin a Phase II validation study for a head and neck cancer subtyper assay. For more on the firm's plans, click here.