Biotech/Pharma Licensing News

By Kwame Mensah --

Last month, Castle Biosciences Inc., a Friendswood, Texas-based corporation specializing in rare cancer molecular diagnostics, announced that it had acquired an exclusive worldwide license to intellectual property covering a gene expression profiling test for thymoma, which is a rare tumor derived from the epithelial cells of the thymus gland.  Castle Biosciences acquired intellectual property rights from Indiana University Research and Technology Corp., a non-profit technology transfer group associated with the university which discovered the gene profile signature that facilitates Castle Biosciences' DecisionDx-Thymoma test.

Castle Biosciences stated that the test has displayed accurate prediction of metastatic risk in patients with thymoma, while also accurately confirming the disease stage at diagnosis.  Castle Biosciences continues to work with Indiana University to complete clinical validation and is aiming to have the test clinically available by the end of this quarter.  Patrick Loehrer, director of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis, stated that "[t]he ability to accurately assess metastatic risk based upon the thymoma's molecular signature will enable personalizing therapeutic options and assist in deciding which patients should receive post-operative therapy."

In addition to its new DecisionDx-Thymoma test, Castle Biosciences also markets tests for diagnosis of uveal melanoma, gliomas and glioblastoma.

Comments

[Ricardo]

It's refreshing to see two institutions working together to further medical science. According to a patent search, Indiana Research & Technology Corp has 48 patents issued and they have seen an increase in the number of patents issued in the past two years (you can see the graph here: http://bit.ly/AqYwa0). You can see the level effort they are providing when it comes innovation and the fact that they are willing to work with other companies to further innovation is amazing.