NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Foundation Medicine and Clovis Oncology today announced a collaboration to develop an in vitro diagnostic test to identify cancer patients who may best respond to a Clovis drug candidate currently in phase I/II clinical development.
The companies will analyze genomic changes in tissue samples from patients in order to assess the possibility of developing an IVD method directed at Clovis' drug rucaparib, a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor. Particularly, they said, they aim to identify the additional genetic mutations beyond those in germ-line and somatic BRCA associated with defective DNA repair and that may define tumor targets for rucaparib.
The collaboration may be able to increase the percentage of ovarian cancer patients potentially eligible for rucaparib therapy from 15 percent typically found in germ-line mutations of BRCA to about 40 percent to 50 percent who have DNA repair deficiencies due to somatic mutations in a variety of genes, Foundation and Clovis said.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Today's deal marks the most recent between Foundation and a pharmaceutical firm in recent months in support of an oncology program, following agreements with Novartis, Array BioPharma, and Sanofi.