NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Almac Diagnostics will collaborate with Merck KGaA and the Medical Research Council on a study of potential biomarkers of response to the cancer drug cetuximab (Erbitux).
The partners will use metastatic colon cancer samples from the MRC's COIN trial — a phase III, multicenter, three-arm study of first-line treatment of metastatic colon cancer — to assess the potential biomarkers. Cetuximab has been approved in Europe in combination with standard chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for mCRC in patients with KRAS wildtype tumors.
Craigavon, Northern Ireland-based Almac said that it will conduct quantitative PCR profiling and data analysis of the samples and assess potential biomarkers, beyond KRAS, in the context of combination therapy with cetuximab.
Further terms of the alliance were not disclosed.