NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Molecular diagnostics firm IntegraGen said today that it has acquired the exclusive rights to use a specific microRNA as a biomarker for predicting patient outcomes in metastatic colorectal cancer.
The license was obtained from the Paris Descartes University, INSERM, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and the Assistance Publique — Hopitaux de Paris. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The miRNA, hsa-miR-31-3p, has been shown to predict progression-free survival in wild-type KRAS patients with the disease who receive treatment with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor drugs, the company said.
"This agreement increases IntegraGen's proprietary oncology biomarker portfolio and enhances our ability to offer new molecular diagnostic tests to physicians which can assist their clinical management of cancer patients," IntegraGen CEO Bernard Courtieu said in a statement.
The license is based on the work of a researcher from the European Georges Pompidou Hospital University Paris Descartes.