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Making Tailored Medical Treatment a Reality: New Health IT Tool From Seryx 'Interprets' Patient Genetic Makeup to Personalize and Optimize Drug Therapies

Posted on: Thursday, 18 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

MONTREAL, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Seryx announced filing of a patent for a new pharmacogenetics/genomics information interpretation technology. The Seryx Drug Regimen Optimizer(TM) is designed to help physicians tailor medical treatment to each patient's unique genetic makeup by identifying the right drug(s), dosage and drug combinations for each patient.

"The Drug Regimen Optimizer is designed to guide physicians and patients toward quicker, more effective therapies and reduced side effects," explained Seryx founder and CEO Patrick Rambaud. "Patients with cancer or other chronic conditions are often on multiple drug regimens. This can be extremely expensive and not always effective. Empowering physicians with data they can use to prescribe the right drug regimen for that particular patient immediately, and not after costly trial and error, can help prolong life and improve its quality, as well as reduce spiraling healthcare costs over the long term."

Discoveries in human genetics have led to the understanding that genetic mutations, called variants, can play a major role in predicting how a patient will respond to certain medications. This science known as pharmacogenetics, is rapidly evolving. Single gene variants are already recognized as major contributors to the variability in drug response and new data on multiple gene variants and their expression are just starting to surface.

"We need to better prepare the medical profession to utilize this important information," said Rambaud.

"The major hurdle doctors will face when considering pharmacogenetics/genomics test results," noted pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics expert Howard L. McLeod, PharmD, "will be how to interpret the information to optimize individual therapy. Pharmacogenetics/genomics will require expertise in drug metabolism, genetics, genomics, drug-drug interactions, informatics and a thorough understanding of the relevant scientific literature. Understanding what to do with the results through interpretive information is key for the implementation of pharmacogenetics/ genomics at the practicing physician level." McLeod is an associate professor in the Oncology Division of the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. (USA), and serves on the editorial boards of Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics.

"In the past the challenge was to conduct genetic testing. But now genetic testing is inexpensive and straightforward. The challenge for us at this point is to process the abundance of genetic information that can be obtained with state of the art technology and to apply that knowledge to clinical medicine. Practicing physicians need to know how genetic variations in pharmacogenetic pathways can impact on the use and dosage of specific drugs taken by their patients as well as on drug-drug interactions. The ability to understand and process such knowledge can make the difference between optimal and substandard medical care," said Dr. Julio Licinio, Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and Medicine/Endocrinology and Director, Center for Pharmacogenomics & Clinical Pharmacology Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior - David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Licinio is also the founding Editor, Molecular Psychiatry and The Pharmacogenomics Journal.

"We plan on completing development of this technology within 24 months through partnerships and close collaboration with regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe," said Rambaud. "Seryx's clinical experience over the last four years with pharmacogenetics interpretive information-under the guidance of our scientific and medical advisory boards-has enabled us to expand our expertise in this field and set the stage for this next generation of personalized medicine. Interpretive information derived from the Drug Regimen Optimizer will enable the routine use of pharmacogenetics/genomics and provide the necessary know-how to help personalize medical treatment."

The Seryx Drug Regimen Optimizer is advanced health information technology, or scientific software, applied to treatment optimization. Its core piece of intellectual property is an evolutionary multi-criteria algorithm that the patent seeks to protect. This sophisticated algorithm can quickly process complex, multi-factorial interactive data sets and constraints to provide optimized solutions for alternative drugs to the patient's current drug regimen while simultaneously considering the patient's medical history, new information about a particular drug or other pertinent information.

About Seryx -----------

A medical information technology company specializing in pharmacogenetics, Seryx Inc, is based in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) with a presence in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Seryx currently offers cytochrome P450 interpretive information.

On the Net: Seryx site: http://www.signaturegenetics.com/ KEYWORD: ASIA, CANADA, EUROPE, US INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PHARMACOGENETICS, PHARMACOGENOMICS, DRUGS, HEALTH, MULTI-CRITERIA ALGORITHM

SERYX INC.

CONTACT: Seryx, Reggie Downey, (877) 243-6384, ext. 361,rdowney@signaturegenetics.com , prambaud@signaturegenetics.com ; SOURCE:Seryx

Source: PRNewswire

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