Genset And Abbott In Pharmacogenomic Deal

Genset and Abbott Laboratories have forged an agreement for the use ofpharmacogenomics to identify the multiple genes and polymorphisms associated with drug efficacy and related side effects.

The use of pharmacogenomics could help predict drug efficacy in patients before treatment and enable physicians to identify patients who are susceptible to harmful side effects to particular drugs. It also has the potential to reduce the time and cost of getting a drug to market by targeting clinical studies to an appropriate population, says Genset.

Genset is to develop a high-density bi-allelic marker map of the human genome, and will apply its technology platform to identify genes and markers associated with response to the administration of a pharmaceutical compound. The map, containing 60,000 markers, will take about 2 years to complete - however, proof-of-principle is already established. Abbott will develop and market diagnostic systems based on such genes and markers to clinically test patient response to specific drugs.