NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - DxS is collaborating with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop a companion diagnostic test kit for the pharmaceutical company's BIBW 2992 (Tovok) drug candidate to identify mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor in patients with non small cell lung cancer.
Manchester, UK-based DxS said that its EGFR companion diagnostic is a real-time PCR assay that is designed to detect the most common mutations in the EGFR gene. It said that the assay would be ready later this summer for use in Boehringer Ingelheim's phase III study of BIBW 2992.
BIBW 2992 is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks EGFR/HER2 receptors. In clinical studies, the drug has offered a "marked increase in efficacy" compared to standard treatments in lung cancer patients carrying mutations in the EGFR gene, the firms said.
The partners said that they would work together to make the diagnostic kit globally available. Financial terms and other details of the agreement were not disclosed.
"We are convinced that the collaboration agreement with DxS can expedite our efforts in the field of personalised medicine," Manfred Haehl, senior vice president of medicine for Boehringer Ingelheim, said in a statement.