Schering Plough collaboration “proceeding as planned”

A collaboration between Schering-Plough and OncoMethylome Sciences is “proceeding as planned” after the recent triggering of a milestone payment.

Having achieved a “key” point in the partnership in the appointment of BRT Laboratories as a clinical trial testing facility, the companies can now begin the evaluation of the methylation status of the MGMT gene in brain tumour cells.

The companies will use OncoMethylome’s MGMT Methylation Assay technology to perform this task.

OncoMethylome says the MGMT gene is part of an “essential” DNA repair mechanism. If the gene is silenced, DNA repair is less likely to be successful, heightening the chances of developing cancer.

However, the gene weakness that can cause tumour cells to grow in the first place also makes them more susceptible to radiation therapy and alkylating drugs, meaning tumour patients demonstrating a defective MGMT gene may respond better to treatment with alkylator drugs than cancer patients without a defective MGMT gene.

Herman Spolders, chief executive officer of OncoMethylome Sciences, stated: “We have provided our collaborator with all the requested testing capacity necessary to support their clinical trials.

“In reaching this milestone, our collaboration with Schering-Plough is proceeding as planned.”

“I am happy that our cornerstone pharmacogenomics test is utilized in a large clinical trial,” Mr Spolders concluded.

A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine last year showed that glioblastoma brain tumour patients can benefit from temozolomide, the Schering-Plough drug marketed as Temodar. It was found that this is especially true of patients with unmethylated MGMT.

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