NEW YORK – Lunit said this week that it has partnered with the Japan National Cancer Center Hospital East to evaluate its artificial intelligence biomarker platform, dubbed Lunit Scope, as a tool for predicting cancer treatment response across multiple tumor types. The platform includes machine learning designed to analyze tissue slides to streamline pathology workflows and diagnostics and to aid in biomarker discovery.
Mainz Biomed has inked a comarketing agreement with TestDNA to offer its ColoAlert test in Poland. The German firm said it is partnering with third-party labs in Europe and select international markets to process samples for the at-home colorectal cancer molecular diagnostic test.
Rocket Pharmaceuticals this week said it's received priority medicines (PRIME) designation from the European Medicines Agency for RP-A501, its gene therapy for Danon disease, based on positive results from an ongoing Phase I trial. RP-A501 encodes a normal copy of a LAMP2B isoform transgene and is designed to restore protein expression to treat Danon disease, which is caused by mutations in the LAMP2 gene that lead to deficiency in the protein of the same name. The therapy already has received Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy and orphan drug designations in the US.
VieCure this week said it has partnered with Clarified Precision Medicine to integrate the Clarified Precision Medicine Somatic and Germline Clinical Consultation process into its artificial intelligence platform to provide support for interpretation of commercial molecular profiling test results. Oncologists will be able to order a molecular test directly on the platform and receive a precision medicine report including a ranked list of treatment options and clinical trials and suggestions for additional testing within 48 hours.
AccuStem Sciences said this week that it has signed an agreement with an undisclosed genomic testing company to support further clinical validation of its StemPrinter ER assay, a 20-gene test designed to stratify patients with early-stage breast cancer according to their recurrence risk. The test is intended to measure the "stemness" of tumors, or how much they behave like stem cells, which may indicate the likelihood of cancer progression and response to standard treatments, the company said. The new partnership will leverage the similarity in platforms, technologies, and human capital at both companies, AccuStem added.
Sophia Genetics said this week that it has joined CancerX, a public-private partnership to accelerate the pace of cancer research in the US, as a founding member. CancerX was announced by the White House earlier this year as part of an expansion of the national Cancer Moonshot initiative. It is led by the Moffitt Cancer Center and the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) and includes the Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH).
Vanda Pharmaceuticals this week said the US Food and Drug Administration granted it orphan drug designation for VCA-894A, an antisense oligonucleotide it is developing. The ASO therapy targets a cryptic splice site variant within the IGHMBP2 gene to treat Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, axonal, type 2S, a rare and inherited disease that's caused by mutations in that gene. The disease results in progressive distal muscle atrophy, with most patients becoming wheelchair bound.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared in Precision Medicine Online.