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TheraGenetics Licenses Intellectual Property Related to Predicting Patient Response to Antidepressant Therapy

Posted on: Friday, 11 July 2008, 06:00 CDT

TheraGenetics Limited, a personalized medicine diagnostics company that is developing and commercializing a portfolio of pharmacogenetic diagnostic tests to guide and improve the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders, announced today that it has completed an agreement with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Ontario, Canada, to license intellectual property related to methods and kits for determining the susceptibility of a patient to certain side-effects of anti-depressants. TheraGenetics' strategic expansion into the area of depression underscores the company's commitment to licensing new technologies to build a foundation for future diagnostic tests for the most common CNS conditions.

"We are excited to add this intellectual property to our exiting CNS portfolio," said Richard P. Kivel, CEO of TheraGenetics. "Since our inception in April 2006, we have made tremendous progress in our efforts to link genes to specific CNS disorders and use this information to predict patient response to treatment as well as drug side effects. The intellectual property we licensed from CAMH further augments our capabilities to innovate pharmacogenetic diagnostics tests in a broad range of disorders, including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease and ADHD."

CAMH shares TheraGenetics' commitment to improving patient care and treatment. "Once an individual is diagnosed as having a mental health disorder, we face the challenge of prescribing the right medication for the right patient. The current one-size-fits all treatment model lacks specificity as not all patients respond to a given treatment," states James Kennedy, MD, senior scientist at CAMH and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Canada, and one of the inventors of the work licensed by TheraGenetics. "To date, it has not been possible to predict who will benefit from a treatment and who will suffer side effects. We believe this work and the approach TheraGenetics is taking has the potential to transform the treatment of a number of CNS disorders."

Ability to Make Promise of Personalized Medicine a Reality in CNS Disorders

TheraGenetics has unique knowledge and experience in CNS disorders extending from the laboratory to the clinic. The ultimate clinical utility of the company's products has been a priority consideration at all stages of test development. The management team has a depth of experience spanning the whole test development process that enables the company to rapidly advance its work in the field of pharmacogenetic response prediction.

By studying large patient groups from around the world treated with different medications, TheraGenetics identifies multiple variants in genes that effect treatment response and the occurrence of side effects to deliver personalized medicine. The company uses this information to design pharmacogenetic diagnostic tests to identify those patients who are most likely to respond to a specific drug and experience the minimum number of side effects, thereby matching the most effective medication to the person.

About TheraGenetics

TheraGenetics is a privately held, personalized medicine diagnostics company that is developing and commercializing a portfolio of pharmacogenetic diagnostic tests to guide and improve the treatment of CNS disorders thereby bringing the right medicine to the right patient. TheraGenetics was created in April 2006 as a spin-out of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. Current investors include Swarraton Partners Ltd., Tudor Ventures, IP Group PLC and Kinetique Biomedical Seed Fund. For more information please visit www.theragenetics.com.

About CAMH

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital, as well as one of the world's leading research centres in the area of addiction and mental health. CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.

CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to transform the lives of people affected by mental health and addiction issues. For more information, visit www.camh.net.

Source: Business Wire

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