Quintiles signs strategic alliance with First Genetic Trust
The agreement will make pharmacogenetic services available as part of any clinical trial program.
By on Nov 30, 2001The agreement will make pharmacogenetic services available as part of any clinical trial program. According to the partnering companies, the alliance has already resulted in Quintiles providing clinical development expertise for a project that First Genetic Trust is conducting with a pharmaceutical company in conjunction with a pharmacogenetics post marketing study. Quintiles, through its PharmaBio Development group, also will make an equity investment in First Genetic Trust.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"It is increasingly understood that genetic factors influence both disease susceptibility and response to treatment," said Arthur Holden, Chairman and CEO of First Genetic Trust. "However, progress toward an era of 'personalized medicine' in which treatment is tailored to an individual's genetic profile will require comprehensive, secure genetic information systems and data services to support the development and adoption of genetic-based medicines and diagnostics."
"We are at the dawn of an exciting era, said Ludo Reynders, Quintiles' CEO for Clinical Development Services. Pharmacogenetics has the potential to impact healthcare and the drug development process significantly. This alliance with First Genetic Trust marks an important step towards understanding how pharmacogenetics can be used to improve patient selection for more efficient clinical trials, and ultimately, how this new field can contribute to developing targeted, individualized medicines. We believe that First Genetic Trust offers a secure genetics infrastructure essential for data privacy."
"A growing body of evidence suggests that adverse drug reactions that were thought to be unpredictable and unpreventable may one day be diagnosed and avoided by prescribing medications based on an individual patient's genetic profile," Holden said.