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- Posted Wednesday January 26, 2011
Arizona companies team up, providing quick development of cancer drugs
TGen Drug Development (TD2) and Flagship Biosciences offer
combined oncology and pathology services for pharmaceutical and
biotech clients
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Jan. 26, 2011 - TGen Drug Development (TD2) and
Flagship Biosciences today announced a strategic alliance that
should help speed new drugs safely into human testing and quickly
benefit cancer patients.
TD2, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., provides drug development firms
with expertise in moving promising laboratory discoveries through
the pre-clinical, clinical and regulatory approval steps of getting
new drugs to patients as quickly and safely as possible.
Flagship Biosciences, based in Flagstaff, Ariz., will greatly
assist in this process by providing high-throughput, multiplexed
immunohistochemistry expertise to support preclinical drug
development and human clinical trials.
"Flagship's technology will significantly accelerate our ability to
identify biomarkers that could help researchers predict which drug
compounds will work best on specific patient cancers," said TD2
President Dr. Stephen Gately.
And because Flagship's affiliated laboratories are certified under
the 1988 federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)
law, these findings can be translated directly into clinical
trials, where they can benefit patients as quickly as
possible.
Specifically, Flagship provides computerized histopathology, the
microscopic study of diseased tissue, which is a critical part of
anatomical pathology and key to the accurate diagnosis of cancer
and other diseases from sample tissues. Flagship also provides deep
expertise in measuring epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), the
process in which tumor cells become highly invasive, migratory and
resistance to therapy.
"The local tumor environment is key to understanding efficacy and
toxicity of oncology compounds in both preclinical and clinical
trials, and EMT is central to understanding stromal involvement and
fibrosis in cancer patients," said Dr. Gately. "Working with
Flagship Biosciences brings a wealth of pathology knowledge in
pharmaceutical product development, experience in difficult
histology analysis."
When combined with TD2's integrated suite of molecular analysis
tools designed to reduce the uncertainty in the drug development
process, the partnership with Flagship will provide emerging drug
companies with the promise of quickly and safely getting their
discoveries to market.
"TD2 is the world-leader in novel approaches to oncology and
oncology clinical trials," said Dr. David Young, President of
Flagship Biosciences. "It is exciting to be partnering with TD2,
and combining our quantitative pathology with TD2's oncology and
molecular tumor profiling expertise. TD2's leadership in novel
approaches to oncology clinical trials is an exciting match for
digital pathology techniques and the promise of quantitative and
virtual pathology analysis of patients and tumor response."
"This partnership is a further demonstration of the emerging
regional strength of Arizona for biotech product development," said
Dr. Robert Kellar, a board member of Flagship Biosciences. "Arizona
is a unique resource for pharma, biotech, and device clients
looking for the rapid application of new technology in development
and clinical trials."
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About Flagship Biosciences
Flagship Biosciences is a pathologist-owned pharmaceutical services
organization that uses digital pathology to deliver quantitative
tissue assessment in pharma and device development. Backed by a
combined 60 years of pharmaceutical pathology experience, Flagship
has a world-class team of pathology, image analysis and companion
diagnostics regulatory experts.
*
About TD2
TGen Drug Development (TD2) provides innovative services for
oncology-focused biopharmaceutical companies using a dedicated team
of professionals with broad experience and understanding in drug
development. TD2, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is uniquely
positioned to support the need for improved and accelerated
development of new chemical entities (NCE's) for life-threatening
diseases. TD2 uses a unique combination of experience gained
through its contract research organization business, and an
integrated suite of proprietary and non-proprietary tools,
preclinical study execution, regulatory affairs assistance,
clinical trial design and management, and drug development experts
to successfully move therapeutics towards regulatory approval. TD2
is dedicated to reducing the risks and uncertainty inherent in the
drug development process. TD2 integrates world-class clinical and
regulatory expertise with "-omic" science and provides unique drug
development services aimed at minimizing the risk for clients in
the Oncology drug development industry. TD2 is a non-profit
subsidiary of the Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Research
Institute (TGen). For more information, visit: www.td2.org.
Press Contact:
Steve Yozwiak
TGen Senior Science Writer
602-343-8704
[email protected]
