After the launch of AccessPPM (Pharmatech Precision Medicine) Research System, Pharmatech is focusing on lung cancer using biomarker targeting in lung cancer studies.
The company has ongoing clinical trials to assess the treatment outcomes of different molecular drivers of lung cancer, and is willing to expand its collaborations with trial sponsors in 2015.
This approach is intended to identify all of the up front biomarkers (or mutations) that a patient carries and to provide instant access to research based treatment options that are recommended according to that patient’s biomarker and clinical profile. Scientific advances in the field of molecular biology of cancer have made possible the association of specific mutations with precise cancer characteristics.
A practical challenge many times encountered has to do with the fact that patients enrolling clinical trials do not receive comprehensive testing to identify all the mutations driving their tumors and that could possibly be treated. AccessPPM has the commercial solution for that problem; this technology allows molecular screening, at a genetic level, that mitigate cost and time in the process of associating patients who carry the exact biomarker with the targeted drug in study. More than 500 cancer biomarkers along with clinical treatment history can help oncologists match patients with the appropriate clinial trials.
“We want to expand lung cancer patients’ treatment options to include the newest precision medicines (…) AccessPPM enables us to quickly find out which mutations are involved and to deliver the right clinical trial to the oncologist to meet the individual patient’s treatment needs,” explained Dr. Matthew Wiener, COO, in a press release.
AccessPPM is available to all trial sponsors, researchers and cancer patients, representing a novelty in the marketplace.
Rob Bohacs, Pharmatech CEO, added “We are thrilled to be integrating our patient centered clinical trial systems with world class molecular diagnostics to deliver research based treatments where and when they are needed most. This disruptive combination of up-front molecular diagnosis, combined with case matched trial opportunities addresses the major challenge to the clinical development of precision cancer medicines today”.
Pharmatech, an oncology Contract Research Organization (CRO) is specialized in optimizing clinical trials processes and will launch similar initiatives aimed at other cancer types and diseases.
