NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – PerkinElmer and the National Center for Drug Screening are collaborating on the creation of a personalized drug research and development platform for patients in China, PerkinElmer announced today.
Together, PerkinElmer and NCDS, a Shanghai-based public technology organization that specializes in screening new drugs, will share knowledge, expertise, and capabilities. As part of their initiative, they will sequence patient samples to "create genomic information for drug profiling, including the validation of biomarkers for personalized disease treatment."
The partners will first conduct research into metabolic diseases with the goal of validating new diagnostics for China's population. Next-generation sequencing technology will be used, and after optimization of the technology platform, it will be implemented in testing laboratories and hospitals throughout China, PerkinElmer said.
"For the majority of drugs that are available in China, the respective biomarkers have not yet been fully validated," Ming-Wei Wang, director of NCDS, said in a statement. "We are very excited to build this state-of-the-art personalized medicine program with PerkinElmer, which will allow us to offer vital insights to improve the quality of healthcare in China."
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.