Almac to perform the analytic phase of AclarusDx™ for Exonhit
July 4, 2011
Almac’s Diagnostic Services business unit today announced that it will be the central service lab to perform the analytic phase and deliver to the clinicians the result of Exonhit AclarusDx™ diagnostic test.
Exonhit AclarusDx™ is a micro-array-based test intended to aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by detecting biomarkers specific for AD in peripheral blood. The test was CE marked in March 2011 and has now been introduced for clinical diagnostic use in France. The test will be performed by Almac from its ISO17025 accredited laboratory. Almac will deliver the AclarusDx™ result to the clinicians.
Almac recently announced the opening of its CLIA registered Clinical Testing laboratory from which it is currently delivering the Therascreen® K-RAS Mutation Test. AclarusDx™ will be the second commercial clinical test that will be managed by Almac. In addition to standard molecular tests Almac will deliver a range of novel, validated biomarker assays from its Clinical Testing Laboratory to facilitate the stratification and enrichment of prospective clinical trials.
Professor Paul Harkin, President and Managing Director of Almac’s Diagnostic Services business said:
“The partnership with Exonhit is an excellent arrangement for both companies. Exonhit will focus on the sales and marketing of AclarusDx while we will focus on the delivery of the diagnostic in our ISO17025 certified laboratory.”
Loïc Maurel, M.D., Chairman of the Management Board at Exonhit said:
“We chose Almac Diagnostic Services as our reference lab to perform the analytic phase of AclarusDx™ due to its strong expertise in molecular biology and its practice of the Affymetrix platform. We also view the location of Almac Diagnostic Services in Northern Ireland as an asset for the upcoming roll-out of AclarusDx™ in Europe.”
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Notes to Editors
About Almac
Almac’s Diagnostic Services business unit is focused on the discovery and development of biomarkers. It utilizes its proprietary technology, extensive experience and expertise to offer solutions to biotech and Pharma partners. Almac focus on providing a range of services including exploratory biomarker discovery studies, verification studies for existing markers, assay development and biomarker validation.
The Almac Group offers a broad range of services from R&D, biomarker discovery and development, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply and IXRS technology (IVRS/IWRS), to commercial-scale manufacture. Almac provides services to more than 600 companies, including all the world leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.
The company employs over 3,000 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California. Staff have now transferred to Almac’s new $120m North American Headquarters which is now fully operational.
For more information about the Almac Group, please visit almacgroup.com or e-mail [email protected]
About Exonhit
Exonhit (Alternext: ALEHT) is a biotech company, focused on personalized medicine, which develops targeted innovative therapeutic and diagnostic products, in oncology and Alzheimer’s disease. Exonhit has a balanced investment strategy with internal development programs and strategic collaborations, in particular with Allergan.
Exonhit is headquartered in Paris, France and has a U.S. subsidiary in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The Company is listed on Alternext of NYSE Euronext Paris and is part of the NYSE Alternext OSEO innovation index. For more information, please visit http://www.exonhit.com.
Disclaimer
This press release contains elements that are not historical facts including, without limitation, certain statements on future expectations and other forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated.
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Finally, this press release may be drafted in the French and English languages. In an event of differences between the texts, the French language version shall prevail.