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Protagen Signs Biomarker Discovery Deal with Pfizer

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Protagen said today that it has entered a collaboration agreement with Pfizer to use its SeroTag technology to identify biomarkers in support of Pfizer's drug development work.

Specifically, the collaboration aims to identify markers for stratifying patient cohorts or predicting patient response to a novel autoimmune disease drug being developed by Pfizer.

Protagen's SeroTag platform uses Luminex-based screens of patient sera against large sets of proteins to identify autoantibody signatures that are prognostic or diagnostic for various conditions. According to the company, it has successfully used the platform for biomarker discovery in autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.

In addition to Pfizer, Protagen counts among its customers pharma firms including Biogen Idec, SuppreMol, and Bayer.

"The current agreement shows that the SeroTag process ... is relevant technology to explore novel biomarkers in support of clinical development in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases," Protagen CEO Stefan Müllner said in a statement.

Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

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