TGI and Quark Announce Collaboration
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Transplant Genomics Inc. (“TGI”) and Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Quark”) have announced their joint intent to pursue a discovery and development collaboration involving the use of TGI’s TruGraf™ blood test in a Phase 3 clinical trial involving patients being treated for delayed graft function (DGF) with Quark’s proprietary drug candidate QPI-1002.
Under the agreement, TGI would be Quark’s preferred provider of gene expression profiling services related to their clinical trial. The primary objective of the Quark/TGI collaboration will be to understand individual patient responses to QPI-1002 as a function of time and gene expression in pathways of immune response injury post transplant.
Results can be correlated with the extensive pre-clinical data created by Quark on the therapy’s molecular mechanism. The secondary objective will be to explore potential surrogate endpoints using the possible predictive value of genomic profiling for longer term outcomes post transplant.
“We’re excited TGI has this powerful technology for understanding the arc of post transplant ischemia reperfusion and immune events leading to the longer term consequences of rejection and graft loss ” said Dr. Elizabeth Squiers, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Quark. “TGI’s TruGraf blood test offers a less invasive means to understand these events and to unlock the potential for future and clinically meaningful endpoints.”
Dr. Roy First, Chief Medical Officer of TGI, commented “This study could highlight an additional use of TGI’s core technology beyond the diagnostic testing we are currently commercializing. We are thrilled to have an opportunity to work with Quark on this important Phase 3 trial of an exciting novel drug candidate with the potential to shorten or avoid DGF, an unmet medical need. If the success of their phase 2 study continues such could potentially expand the population of transplantable organs while reducing costs by avoiding this common medical complication.” No other terms of the collaboration between TGI and Quark are being disclosed at this time.
