Exiqon acquires all rights to new prostate cancer biomarkers from Aarhus University Hospital.


Copenhagen, 2015-09-02 14:10 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Exiqon A/S (NASDAQ Copenhagen: “EXQ”) today announced that the company has exclusively licensed two sets of validated prostate cancer biomarkers from Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA). 

Exiqon and MOMA collaborate with the objective to identify and validate new biomarkers that can improve the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer patients. The two sets of validated biomarker profiles are subject to patent pending and scientific publications of results, however, Exiqon has already now secured the exclusive commercial rights to these biomarkers. One biomarker profile relates to non-invasive diagnosis of prostate cancer based on urine samples. The other biomarker profile relates to patient stratification for improved treatment selection and is based on tissue samples. Next step will be to validate the biomarkers in retrospective studies of samples from other European countries and provide clinical validation including through an ongoing prospective study. 

Associate professor, Karina Dalsgaard Sørensen from MOMA says: ”We are very excited about the prospects of the two new license agreements with Exiqon. This is an ideal opportunity to translate these promising new biomarkers into actual clinical tests that could help prostate cancer patients in the future.” 

Prostate cancer constitutes about 15% of all diagnosed cancers. However, the management of prostate cancer patients remains a challenge in today’s clinical practice. Prostate cancer today is diagnosed by measuring the level of the biomarker Prostate Cancer Specific Antigen (PSA) in serum followed by histopathological analysis of the prostate for tumor cells. Today’s method is imperfect because it results in false positives. The rate of over-diagnosis of prostate cancer may be as high as 50% in Europe and the USA, which is a cause for concern for patients and a considerable burden on health care systems.

Together Exiqon and MOMA have several ongoing diagnostic collaborations including a recent grant of DKK 23 million from the Advanced Technology Foundation (now Innovation Foundation). This grant finances the identification and validation of biomarkers including microRNA in urine for diagnosis of prostate cancer as well as prognostic biomarkers for identification of aggressive cancer, and may benefit from the addition of the prostate cancer biomarkers now licensed by Exiqon.

 

Additional information

Lars Kongsbak, President and CEO, tel. +45 4566 0888 (cell: +45 4090 2101)

Hans Henrik Chrois Christensen, CFO, phone +45 4566 0888 (cell: +45 4090 2131)

 

About Exiqon

Exiqon operates in two business areas: Exiqon Life Sciences, a leading provider of flexible solutions for RNA analysis. Exiqon’s research products are used by academia, biotech and pharmaceutical companies around the world to make groundbreaking discoveries about the correlation between gene activity and the development of cancer and other diseases. Exiqon Diagnostics collaborates with pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to develop novel molecular diagnostic tests for early detection of diseases which can help physicians make treatment decisions based on the tools developed by Exiqon Life Sciences. Exiqon is listed on the NASDAQ in Copenhagen. For more information about us, please visit www.exiqon.com

 

 


Attachments

Announcement 8_2015.pdf