NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – French molecular diagnostics outfit IntegraGen, the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), and its technology transfer subsidiary, INSERM Transfert, announced on Tuesday an agreement granting IntegraGen an exclusive worldwide option to license a portfolio of biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma.
IntegraGen will use the biomarkers to develop genetic diagnostics for the personalized treatment of the disease, which affects more than 70,000 people annually in Europe and the US. The biomarkers were discovered and developed by Jessica Zucman-Rossi, a clinical researcher at the Descartes University of Paris/Georges Pompidou European Hospital, and director of the INSERM U674 research unit.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In a statement, IntegraGen CEO Bernard Courtieu said that his firm plans to validate tools developed under the agreement within the next two years under clinical conditions. Fabien Calvo, director of INSERM's ITMO cancer institute, added that the methods developed by Zucman-Rossi will enable patient stratification.