NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Ariana Pharma today said it has joined a new partnership to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of chronic hepatitis.
Ariana will apply its Knowledge Extraction and Management (KEM) platform to discover new biomarkers that could lead to earlier diagnosis of fibrosis and the ability to predict drug-resistance, the Paris-based company said. It said that the KEM platform can combine genomic and proteomic data with patient characteristics to maximize the probability of an effective test.
Bio-Rad Laboratories is leading the three-year project, called Hepachronix, which also includes Beaujon Hospital in Paris, and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).
In a statement, Ariana said that the goal of Hepachronix is to gain a better understanding of how liver fibrosis progresses from early, mild stage to debilitating diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatoma carcinoma. About 40 percent of hepatitis c virus patients do not respond to standard treatments, and Hepachronix seeks to develop biomarkers to characterize patient response to therapies.
France's Single Inter-Ministry Fund and the Ile de France region have provided funding for Hepachronix. Bio-Rad will market in vitro diagnostic reagents resulting from the collaboration, and the partners will share royalties from any sales, Ariana said.