NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Late-stage drug development company Aeterna Zentaris announced today that it plans to collaborate with the diagnostics division of Almac on research aimed at developing a companion diagnostic tool to complement its AEZS-108 compound.
The companies plan to come up with a companion diagnostic for assessing the expression of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone — information that can be used to help guide treatment with AEZS-108, Aeterna Zentaris' LHRH-targeted conjugate with doxorubicin.
"This state of the art companion diagnostic tool will allow us to develop improved methods of selecting the most appropriate patients to be treated with AEZS-108 in order to enhance the efficiency of our clinical trials and help us with the future successful development of AEZS-108 in a number of different LHRH expressing cancers," Aeterna Zentaris President and CEO Juergen Engel said in a statement.
LHRH receptor expression has been linked to some ovarian, endometrial, breast, bladder, prostrate, and pancreatic cancers. At the moment, AEZS-108 is in Phase 2 trials for treating advanced ovarian and endometrial cancers that are LHRH receptor positive. AEZS-108 has also been designated an orphan drug by the US Food and Drug Administration and has investigational new drug status for bladder cancer in the US.