UK biotech company Epistem to collaborate with Sanofi-aventis

Epistem plc, the UK biotechnology and personalised medicine company today announced a collaboration with sanofi-aventis U.S. Inc. relating to the use of Epistem's proprietary biomarker gene expression profiling and immunohistochemistry technologies. Under the terms of the agreement sanofi-aventis has entered into a 3 year collaboration with Epistem to provide discovery through to clinical biomarker support to oncology programmes of sanofi-aventis and its affiliates.

The collaboration is expected to inform sanofi-aventis oncology programmes with a biomarker strategy aimed at identifying biological responses to drugs in relevant tissues. The translational nature of this relationship means activities will cover preclinical, ex vivo and clinical support.  Epistem may receive up to 4 million U.S. dollars in research support payments including reimbursement of certain costs, over the 3 year period.

Matthew Walls Chief Executive Officer of Epistem said “We are excited at the prospect of working across a range of oncology programmes and of applying our technology in collaboration with the team at sanofi-aventis. This collaboration represents an important milestone for the Company as we continue to exploit our biomarker technologies which are well positioned to support and streamline the drug development process”