DNAPrint Genomics Forms Pharmaceutical Subsidiary
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DNAPrint™ genomics, Inc. has announced that it has established DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned pharmaceutical subsidiary focused on personalized medicine.
“Since its inception, DNAPrint genomics successfully has leveraged its broad-based expertise in genomics into three business segments - ancestry for the consumer market, forensics technology for law enforcement and pharmacogenomics - personalized medicine based on a patient's DNA,” stated Company President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Gabriel.
“With our ANCESTRYbyDNA™ and DNAWITNESS™ technologies serving as a foundation for the Company's business, DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals is being targeted as the engine for further expansion and growth.”
“We now have the corporate flexibility to concentrate on the pharmaceutical products we are currently licensing or have under development. To further finance this effort we will also be seeking funding for DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals.”
“We are at the forefront in the development of personalized medicines and genomics-based pharmaceuticals, the Company's main focus,” stated Hector J. Gomez, M.D., Ph.D., DNAPrint's Chairman and Chief Medical Officer, who will head the new subsidiary's day-to-day operations.
“We believe that test/drug combinations called 'theranostics' are the wave of the future and that our new DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals subsidiary affirms the Company's commitment to the development of these products.”
Data Monitor and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association expect the worldwide pharmaceutical market to triple over the next 10-15 years to an estimated trillion dollars a year, driven primarily by a flood of new drug targets and the increase in the U.S. demand for drug treatments as the baby boomer population ages.
Many of these targets were identified through genomics, opening the way for DNAPrint genomics to develop theranostic drugs to reduce side effects and provide greater efficacy through accompanying genomic response tests designed to ensure that patients receive the appropriate medication and dosage.
DNAPrint took a significant step in pharmaceutical development in July 2005 by acquiring an 18% stake in the German pharmaceutical company Biofrontera, which also has a number of compounds under development.
DNAPrint's first test/drug combination is PT-401, being developed in collaboration with Harvard Medical School's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).
DNAPrint is also collaborating with the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center on the development of two other pharmacogenomic products: OVANOME™, a test for predicting an ovarian cancer patient's response to TAXOL/Carboplatin treatment, and STATINOME™, a test for predicting adverse response to cholesterol lowering medicines known as Statins.
