Compendia Bioscience Announces Collaboration with MDS Pharma Services to Deliver Novel Solution for Oncology Drug Development

ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Compendia Bioscience today announced a strategic collaboration with MDS Pharma Services to deliver OncoPredictor(SM) -- a novel solution for improved cancer drug development. OncoPredictor(SM) combines MDS Pharma Services OncoPanel(TM) with Compendia Bioscience's Oncomine(TM) for a solution that will provide guidance on patient groups most likely to respond to a new cancer therapy.

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MDS Pharma Services OncoPanel(TM) service provides high content screening of up to 240 cancer cell lines to assess the cytotoxicity and chemotherapeutic potential of specific cancer drugs and drug combinations. Compendia's Oncomine(TM), a database of cancer genomic profiles coupled with an analysis web application, provides genomic characterization and comparison of cancer cell lines to 2,000 disease signatures from more than 27,000 reference patients based on molecular, pathological and histological sub-types. Through this collaboration, the OncoPredictor(SM) system will enable the analysis of drug sensitivity and resistance of novel drugs and drug combinations as well as the identification of associations with both disease sub-types and underlying tumor biology.

"Based on our experience working with 15 of the top 20 companies pursuing the development of cancer treatments, we believe this integrated solution could revolutionize cancer genomics for drug development," said Compendia CEO and Co-founder Dan Rhodes, Ph.D. "All of our customers are keenly interested in identifying which patients are mostly likely to respond to their new drugs. OncoPredictor(SM) provides the right experimental scale, in terms of cell line data and reference patient data, to deliver the answers our customers are seeking."

MDS Pharma Services is the only contract research organization with firsthand experience of delivering high quality cellular data on such a large scale using the exact growth and culture conditions from which the genomic data in Oncomine(TM) was generated.

"MDS Pharma Services clearly provides unique experience and capabilities," continued Rhodes. "We do not believe we could have identified a better partner to co-develop this solution."

The solution will be delivered as a stand-alone, end-to-end service and will not require a license to any of Compendia's Oncomine offerings.

"MDS Pharma Services is pleased to collaborate with Compendia Bioscience to develop OncoPredictor(SM), which will help clients developing cancer treatments to do so more effectively and quickly," said David Spaight, MDS Pharma Services president. "Compendia Bioscience is a leader in the field of cancer genomics and Oncomine(TM) has become a standard platform in the industry. We believe our joint solution - OncoPredictor(SM) - can also become an industry standard in oncology drug development at a cost affordable for both large and smaller companies"

About Compendia Bioscience's Oncomine(TM)

Oncomine(TM) combines a rapidly growing compendium of 30,000+ expertly curated cancer genomic profiles with a sophisticated analysis engine and a powerful web application for data mining and visualization. Oncomine(TM) facilitates target discovery and validation and supports the prioritization of tumor populations for drug development. http://www.compendiabio.com/products/products.htm

About Compendia Bioscience, Inc.

Compendia Bioscience is dedicated to harnessing the global collection of high throughput molecular data to provide researchers with the data and analysis tools necessary to validate biomarker and gene target discoveries, better understand mechanisms of disease, and optimize clinical outcomes. www.compendiabio.com

About MDS Pharma Services OncoPanel(TM)

MDS Pharma Services' OncoPanel(TM) offers high-throughput cellular drug profiling, relying on deep experience in cell culture and high content imaging to systematically screen compounds across hundreds of cancer cell lines simultaneously.

About MDS Pharma Services

MDS Pharma Services is committed to delivering quality service on time. We offer a full spectrum of resources to meet the drug discovery and development needs of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. With numerous facilities strategically located around the world, we apply advanced scientific and technological expertise throughout the drug discovery and development process - from lead optimization, pre-IND research, early clinical research (bioequivalence, phases I-IIa) and bioanalysis through to global clinical development (phases IIb-IV), central lab and centralized cardiac services.

MDS Pharma Services Pharmacology/DMPK division, offers biochemical, cellular/functional, ADME/DMPK and in vivo assays for use in identifying lead compounds, profiling for selectivity, determining the potential for adverse events, evaluating efficacy and establishing proof of concept. To help speed lead optimization earlier in the discovery phase and streamline the surest path to clinic, the team offers extensive capabilities in molecular and cellular pharmacology, including more than 800 assays, multiple assay methodologies, high throughput screening with robotic automation, and expert assay development. To view the extensive catalog of discovery assays, visit the MDS Pharma Services' Pharmacology/DMPK Web site at http://discovery.mdsps.com/Catalog/.

For more information, visit our website at www.mdsps.com.



CONTACT: John Freshley, Chief Business Officer, of Compendia Bioscience,
+1-734-945-6344, media@compendiabio.com

Web site: www.compendiabio.com/

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