Genaissance patent for novel methods to correlate genetics with drug safety and efficacy

[Guest guest]

News-Medical.Net Tuesday, 4-Jan-2005

Genaissance patent for novel methods to correlate genetics with drug safety and

efficacy

Genaissance Pharmaceuticals received a Notice of Allowance from the United

States Patent and Trademark Office for a patent claiming methods for identifying

correlations between the safety and efficacy of drugs and patients' unique

genetic signatures.

Genaissance developed this technology, the DecoGen® Informatics System, with

the goal of reducing adverse events and increasing positive outcomes of broadly

used medicines through more informed prescribing decisions. The allowed patent

claims specifically cover novel haplotype correlation methods for identifying

drug safety and efficacy markers as well as disease susceptibility markers.

The DecoGen® Informatics System combines a comprehensive database of genetic

variation information with a set of computer applications for storing and

analyzing genetic variation, especially in the context of pharmacogenetic

clinical trials. The Company expects that the patent, titled " Methods for

Obtaining and Using Haplotype Data, " will issue in the first half of 2005.

The DecoGen® system is a key component in Genaissance's Phase II

pharmacogenetic development plans for vilazodone, an antidepressant drug

candidate recently licensed from Merck KGaA, and also in the fulfillment of

obligations in support of clinical trials with its pharmaceutical and

biopharmaceutical partners.

" DecoGen®'s throughput and accuracy have established it as an important

technology for discovering genetic variables that are likely to interfere with a

drug's intended features, " notes Rakin, President and Chief Executive

Officer of Genaissance. " This knowledge can be of immense value to physicians in

their current prescribing patterns and may also help in the reformulation of

drugs to avoid adverse events. "

" Our unique informatics-intensive approach of utilizing haplotype-based

association methods has increased our ability to identify genetic markers of

clinical significance. Recently published results from STRENGTH and data from

CARING have identified haplotype markers of drug response (both efficacy and

safety) that are of greater specificity and sensitivity than have previously

been discovered using standard pharmacogenetic association methods, " stated

Judson, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Genaissance.

Genaissance has patent applications pending that cover other methods within the

DecoGen® Informatics System, including Genaissance's HAP Builder software,

which builds haplotypes with high accuracy from genotypes for multiple single

nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a gene.

http://www.genaissance.com/