Eutropics wins NCI contract

Eutropics will provide its BH3 profiling diagnostic assay to the NCI.

Eutropics Pharmaceuticals has been awarded a new contract to provide companion diagnostic services to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the US.

The agreement, signed through the institute's Small Business Initiative Research programme, will see it using its BH3 profiling diagnostic assay for treatments used in the management of patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML).

The assay provides diagnostic help that can be used to inform the use of several different therapies and is currently being tested as a tool to be used alongside more experimental treatments currently in development.

It uses a biomarker that provides an understanding of whether or not cancer cells will be capable of responding to certain treatments, making it a crucial tool in deciding when to use certain treatments and which should be avoided.

"There is a very good likelihood that this BH3 profiling technology will provide an important guiding tool for treating AML," said Dr Michael Andreeff, chief of molecular hematology at MD Anderson Cancer Center and scientific advisor to Eutropics.

"We are all looking forward to its validation in the clinical studies proposed in this contract."