Read-Gene headquartered in Szczecin, Poland and Selvita, headquartered in Krakow, Poland announced today a strategic research, development and marketing partnership in the area of genetic background of neoplasm development and related treatments. The goal of the cooperation is to take advantage of the best of scientific, technical and business competencies of both companies in order to develop novel oncology diagnostics and treatment solutions. The foundation of the partnership is laid on twenty years of research of Read-Gene team into the genetic background of neoplasm development and its latest research on genomic-based targeting of cancer therapies. Selvita will contribute to the partnership scientific resources, bioinformatics tools and its expertise in the pharmaceutical market.
The cooperation covers five commercial projects, four targeted at pharmaceutical market and one targeted at medical market. The firms will also jointly conduct basic research projects.
“This alliance will allow us to make the best use of Read-Gene knowledge and experience in order to help pharmaceutical companies to diminish the risk and accelerate the development of new oncology drugs”, said prof. Jan Lubinski, the CEO of Read-Gene. “Selvita will help us to develop professional services and products based on our research and infrastructure, and thus improve their commercial availability and the level of added value offered to pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers”
The first result of the partnership will be Gencron – a service covering the optimum match of genetically identified patient groups to oncology drugs, which are currently under clinical and pre-clinical development (so called drug targeting but also drugs which failed to achieve the expected milestones during their development cycle (drug repositioning). Such services comprise the fundamentals of modern pharmacogenomics. The drugs which have been tested on genetically identified patient groups allow the doctors to select the most appropriate therapy depending on the individual patient’s genome. This in turn leads to better treatment results, fewer side effects and reduced risk of applying drugs which are completely inefficient for the particular patient. The application of genetically-profiled drugs is one of the elements of personalized medicine which is the focus of Read-Gene research.
“Selvita wants to cooperate with the best scientific teams”, said Pawel Przewiezlikowski, the CEO of Selvita. „We are very excited about the opportunity to work with Prof. Lubinski’s team and we are happy to contribute our scientific, bioinformatics and business competencies to bring quickly the results of breakthrough Polish oncology research to practical usage by pharmaceutical companies.
Gencron project will utilize the recent discoveries of Read-Gene team identifying the influence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in patient genomes on the origins and development of cancer and related drug interactions. The discoveries have already resulted in many patents and patent applications in USA and Europe.
About Read-Gene Read-Gene is a biomedical research company founded in 2005. The mission of the company is commercial application of the methods of identification, prevention and treatment of most frequent malignant tumors. Most discoveries have been made at International Hereditary Cancer Center of the Pomeranian Medical University, founded in 1992 and based in Szczecin, Poland. IHCC research targeted at prevention, diagnostics and treatment of tumors has been published in many leading research journals. The main achievements of IHCC are: - Creation of one of the largest data bases worldwide including data on patients with tumors, their relatives and control groups and 180 000 DNA samples - Establishing of a network of more than 20 molecular diagnostics centers in Poland which can conduct up to 1 000 genetic tests per day (for example BRCA1 mutation influencing the risk of breast cancer and others) - 12 Polish and international patents related to genetic background of neoplasm origins and development The International Hereditary Cancer Center has 68 employees including 30 researchers.
More about Read-Gene: http://www.read-gene.com. About Selvita Selvita is a Polish biotechnology company, founded In 2007 in Krakow, Poland with the aim of helping global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to gain efficient access to innovative compounds developed at Polish universities and good research capabilities of Polish scientists. It employs an experienced team of specialists with molecular biology, biotechnology, chemistry, pharmacy, and informatics degrees including 9 PhDs from leading US, German, Swedish, Swiss, Dutch and Polish universities and good pharmaceutical industry background. The company develops its own innovative compounds pipeline up to the IND stage, provides bioinformatics and chemical informatics services to the pharmaceutical industry as well as pre-clinical research services through its daughter company BioCentrum. More about Selvita: http://www.selvita.com
Media contact: Read-Gene: prof. dr. hab. Jan Lubinski, CEO Tel.: +48 602 784 784 e-mail: office@read-gene.com
Selvita: Pawel Przewiezlikowski, CEO Tel: +48 12 410 73 80 e-mail: selvita@selvita.com
