NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Cell Signaling Technology has licensed to Cepheid non-exclusive rights to patents related to the detection of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangements for the development of PCR-based tests, CST announced today.
Cepheid will develop the test to identify non-small cell lung cancer patients with ALK gene rearrangements. Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
CST said that it and an unidentified partner own "dominant rights" to the IP surrounding the detection of EML4-ALK translocations, including method claims covering immunohistochemistry, PCR, and gene sequencing platforms, and molecular-based methods for detecting EML4-ALK. Additionally, CST holds the US patent for methods of inhibiting the progression of lung cancers that express the EML4-ALK fusion gene.
More than 1.6 million new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year, CST said, with about 85 percent of lung cancer patients having the non-small cell type. Between 3 and 5 percent of NSCLC patients have tumors positive for the ALK fusion gene, the Danvers, Mass.-based company added.