Celera in research accord with Abbott

California, USA-based Celera Corp has entered into a research collaboration with US health care major Abbott Laboratories to identify genetic markers for one of the latter's investigational compounds. A key aim of the collaboration is to investigate if genetic variants Celera has identified can predict how patients may respond to treatment. The identification of treatment response markers may assist in further development of the drug.

Under the terms of this collaboration, Abbott will pay Celera an undisclosed fee to perform this study and any resulting companion diagnostic product could be developed by the firm and commercialized through its existing strategic alliance with Abbott.

Thomas White, chief scientific officer at Celera, said: "the results of this study will provide new information on the correlation between genetic markers associated with disease and response to therapy. Routinely testing this general concept in early clinical trials may give us new and important insights to personalizing disease management."