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Centogene Inks Drug Discovery, Development Deal With Chiesi

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — Centogene announced on Monday that it has formed a drug discovery and development partnership with Italian drug developer Chiesi.

Under the terms of the deal, Hamburg, Germany-based Centogene will perform a European epidemiological study focused on the prevalence of alpha mannosidosis (AM) — a rare genetic lysosomal storage disorder caused by mutations in the MAN2B1 gene and a core indication for Chiesi. Centogene said it will collect samples from individuals suspected to have AM using its CentoCard dried blood spot collection kit, which it will use to fully sequence MAN2B1 to identify disease-causing mutations.

"Our joint collaboration underpins our globally strong position to speed up the early identification of patients with rare genetic diseases," Centogene CEO Arndt Rolfs said in a statement. "We welcome the opportunity to work with Chiesi … and provide valuable epidemiological and prevalent insights into this devastating condition."

Earlier this year, Centogene — which opened a Boston office in late 2017 — formed a collaboration with Evotec to discover and develop drugs for rare hereditary metabolic diseases and began working with Aldeyra Therapeutics to identify patients with Sjögren-Larsson Syndrome.

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