Media Release
Basel, 17 December 2003
Roche
and deCODE Announce Milestones in the Pharmacogenomics of Asthma and Hypertension
Simple gene expression assays used in clinical trials predicted response to common asthma and hypertension drugs with an average accuracy of 85%
Roche Diagnostics and deCODE genetics today announced the achievement by deCODE of two milestones under the companies’ alliance to develop DNA-based diagnostic tests. Scientists at deCODE’s pharmacogenomics and clinical trials subsidiary Encode have developed gene expression assays that can predict responsiveness to common treatments for asthma and hypertension. In the Icelandic cohorts studied, the research assays predicted, with an average accuracy of 85%, which patients would or would not respond to leading classes of drugs used to treat these diseases. The companies are working together to validate these findings and to turn these assays into novel diagnostic tests. Such tests could provide physicians and their patients with information that can be used to select individualized treatment options. deCODE receives milestone payments for these discoveries.
Through in vitro analysis of gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) taken from patients who are responders or non-responders to a given class of drug, Encode identified genes whose expression levels accurately predict whether the class of drug works well for individual patients. In asthma, Encode analyzed gene expression profiles from several hundred responders and non-responders to the largest classes of therapeutic drugs: corticosteroids and leukotrine inhibitors. In hypertension, Encode enrolled several hundred patients to generate expression profiles for responsiveness to representative drugs from the leading classes of drugs used to lower blood pressure: angiotensin II inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and ACE inhibitors. For each class of drugs in both diseases, Encode identified fewer than a dozen genes the expression of which yielded an 85% accurate prediction of responsiveness.
“This
is a very important and exciting discovery and underscores the value of our pioneering approach to improving
patient outcomes by marrying knowledge of the genetic basis of disease and response to therapy,” said
Heino von Prondzynski, Head of Roche Diagnostics and Member of the Roche Executive Committee. “ We are
committed to using our leading position in diagnostics to create new tools to help physicians fulfill
the promise of personalized healthcare.”
“Pharmacogenomic tests such
as these will be an important means of applying advances in genetics to improve and personalize healthcare.
Even the best drugs do not work for everyone, and many good drugs have side effects. Through the development
of tests based on these findings, we can determine which drugs are best suited to individuals, thereby
optimizing therapeutic impact and sparing patients unnecessary side effects that can result from prescribing
drugs through trial and error,” said Dr. Kari Stefansson, CEO of deCODE. “In so doing, we may be able
not only to make medicines more beneficial to patients, but also to enable pharmaceutical companies
to develop new drugs more efficiently and to maximize the value of their products in highly competitive
marketplaces.”
About Roche
Headquartered
in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading innovation-driven healthcare groups. Its
core businesses are pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is number one in the global diagnostics market,
the leading supplier of pharmaceuticals for cancer and a leader in virology and transplantation. As
a supplier of products and services for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group
contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people’s health and quality of life. Roche employs
roughly 65,000 people in 150 countries. The Group has alliances and R&D agreements with numerous
partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai.
Roche’s Diagnostics Division, the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics with a uniquely broad product portfolio, supplies a wide array of innovative testing products and services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories world-wide.
About
deCODE
deCODE is using population genetics to create a new paradigm for healthcare.
With its uniquely comprehensive population data, deCODE is turning research on the genetic causes of
common diseases into a growing range of products and services — in pharmaceuticals, gene and drug discovery,
DNA-based diagnostics, pharmacogenomics, bioinformatics, and clinical trials. deCODE’s pharmaceuticals
group, based in Chicago, and deCODE’s biostructures group, based in Seattle, conduct downstream development
work on targets derived from deCODE’s proprietary research in human genetics as well as contract service
work for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. deCODE is delivering on the promise of the new
genetics.SM Visit us on the web.