NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Biomarker-based diagnostics company Nuclea Biotechnologies today announced a partnership with Wilex aimed at better managing the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
Under the terms of the five-year deal, Nuclea will incorporate Wilex's ELISA test measuring HER2/neu levels into its diagnostic panels and offer the test as a service, Nuclea President and CEO Patrick Muraca told GenomeWeb Daily News. In April Nuclea will start clinical testing services in its new laboratory in Pittsfield, Mass., during which the new ELISA test, which measures HER2/neu levels from serum, will become available.
Additionally, the firms will develop new indications for the assay for other areas of metastatic breast cancer, Muraca added. He declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Cambridge, Mass.-based Wilex is a wholly owned US subsidiary of Wilex AG in Munich and develops biomarker-based oncology tests marketed under the brand name Oncogene Science.
"Since Nuclea understands and focuses on gene and protein expression profiles in tumors, the serum HER2 test is an important addition to their profiling efforts," Olaf Wilhelm, CEO of Wilex and Wilex AG, said in a statement. "Besides using our HER2 ELISA in its CLIA lab, Nuclea will also start R&D and validation of this test in early breast cancer and possibly other indications."