DxS seals companion diagnostic deal with Bristol-Myers

Collaboration agreement

Manchester, UK-based DxS Ltd, a specialist in the development of companion diagnostics for personalised medicine, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb and ImClone Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly, to further develop a K-RAS companion diagnostic for the cancer treatment Erbitux (cetuximab) in the US and Canada.

If approved, the DxS TheraScreen K-RAS Mutation Kit would become a companion diagnostic for use with Erbitux in metastatic colorectal cancer to determine which patients have wild-type K-RAS status. The diagnostic detects K-RAS mutations in codons 12 and 13. The use of monoclonal antibody EGFR inhibitors such as Erbitux is not recommended for the treatment of colorectal cancer with mutations in codon 12 or 13. It is estimated that 40 per cent of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer have K-RAS mutations while the majority, 60 per cent, have the wild-type K-RAS gene.

Financial terms of the agreement are not disclosed.