GE Healthcare, Dyax enter agreement for imaging peptides for use in cancer research
GE Healthcare, a unit of GE (NYSE:GE; Chalfont St. Giles, England), and Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ:DYAX; Burlington, MA) entered into a licensing agreement for the development and commercialization of peptides binding to c-Met, which provides upfront, milestone, and royalty payments to Dyax. Research of potential diagnostic applications and use as a patient selection biomarker in oncology will be explored by GE Healthcare in collaboration with academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies. The license includes application of the peptides in optical imaging, as well as in positron emission tomography (PET) and single proton emission computed tomography (SPECT).
“Growth factor receptors such as c-Met are promising therapeutic targets that could be a critical factor in the development of colorectal, lung, and liver oncology drugs,” says Marivi Mendizabal, head of research, GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics. “As in-vivo imaging technologies become increasingly important in oncology drug development, our vision is that we will be able to rapidly develop new targeted molecular diagnostics—not just for our own clinical portfolio, but as ‘companion’ diagnostic offerings for our strategic biopharmaceutical partnerships.”
Initial preclinical data on c-Met imaging will be presented by GE Healthcare at the American Academy of Cancer Research meeting March 31 – April 4 in Chicago, IL.
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