Warnex announces that its medical laboratories division will develop new pharmacogenetic assays and serve as a central laboratory for several clinical studies of Schering-Plough Canada
"Pharmacogenetic assays allow the correlation of different responses to drugs with genetic diversity and/or mutations, improving the overall process of drug development," said Mark Busgang, president and CEO of Warnex.
"In 2006, Warnex acquired Pro-DNA Diagnostics, a laboratory offering genetic testing services, in order to enter the pharmacogenetics market.
"These new projects with Schering-Plough Canada validate our strategy to develop our presence in this growing market".
Pharmacogenetics helps to predict whether a patient will have a good response to a drug, a bad response to a drug or no response at all.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, over two million adverse drug reactions (ADRs) occur yearly leading to more than 100,000 deaths yearly.
ADRs are one of the leading causes of hospitalisation and death, ahead of pulmonary disease, diabetes, Aids and pneumonia in the United States.
By employing pharmacogenetic studies in drug development, companies can increase the likelihood of a positive study result by matching patients who are more likely to respond or alternatively not more likely not to have an adverse event.
Warnex Medical Laboratories will provide pharmacogenetic and molecular biology services during Schering-Plough Canada's clinical trials for drugs related to the treatment of different types of cancer and infectious diseases.
Warnex Medical Laboratories focuses on genetic and biochemical testing for the healthcare industry.
The division performs testing in a wide range of clinical specialties, including endocrinology, haematology, infectious diseases, obstetrics/gynaecology, and oncology, and has extensive expertise in genetic testing for human identification, molecular medicine, and pharmacogenetics.
