EPIGENETICS DRUGS AND DIAGNOSTIC TECHNOLOGIES MARKET ANALYSIS

Market News

Global Epigenetics Drugs & Diagnostic Technologies Market: Key Developments

On October 20, 2021, Sygnature Discovery Ltd., a U.K.-based integrated Drug Discovery Clinical Research Organization announced a joint research agreement with Epigeneron, Inc., a Japan-based drug discovery and detection of gene mutation company. The collaboration is for Epigeneron’s proprietary technology, called ‘locus-specific ChIP’, to identify drug targets that regulate the expression of disease-related genes. By conducting drug discovery research for new drug candidate molecules on the novel drug targets identified by this technology, the company will contribute to the discovery of ‘novel drugs’ originating from Japan.

On February 23, 2022, Element Biosciences, a U.S.-based multi-disciplinary startup focused on innovating genetic analysis tools for the research and diagnostic markets, announced a partnership with Dovetail Genomics LLC, a U.S.-based biotechnology company demonstrating the value and performance of Dovetail’s proximity ligation-based Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) library prep solutions on Element’s AVITI System. The aim of the partnership with Dovetail Genomics is to deliver seamless compatibility between the AVITI System and Dovetail’s library preparation kits. Their proximity ligation technology couples well with Element Biosciences’s improvements in sequencing accuracy, lower optical duplication rate, and consistency of data, across a range of applications

On February 22, 2022,  Zenith Epigenetics, a Canada-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, announced dosing of first cancer patient with a combination of ZEN-3694 + Bristol Myers Squibb’s Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor OPDIVO and YERVOY, in a National Cancer Institute (NCI), a U.S.-based government  cancer research institute sponsored trial in solid tumor cancer. The trial will be conducted by NCI funded investigators and will evaluate the safety and activity of this combination in patients with solid tumors that have become resistant to other therapies. This Phase 1/1b clinical trial will also evaluate a triple combination of ZEN-3694 + OPDIVO + YERVOY (an inhibitor of another immune checkpoints, CTLA4). Upon determination of a dosing regimen of the aforementioned double and triple combination, the trial will be expanded to ovarian cancer patients who have progressed on platinum-based chemotherapy. This collaboration supplements our ongoing company sponsored Phase 2b trials in prostate cancer and breast cancer by significantly broadening the evaluation and development of ZEN-3694 into multiple other tumor types.

On January 25, 2022, Active Motif Inc., a Germany-based biotechnology company, announced the acquisition of Amaryllis Nucleics, a U.S.-based cancer diagnostics and pharmaceutical development company, and their proprietary RNASeq workflow. Amaryllis Nucleics provides Active Motif with a streamlined, low-cost library preparation method to perform high-efficiency RNA sequencing using their intellectual property associated with 3’ Digital Gene Expression. The technology utilizes a novel synthesis chemistry that is twice as fast from RNA to library prep compared to other methods, is less expensive, and shows greater than 99% strand-specificity. Amaryllis’ service business as well as their 3’ DGE RNA Library Prep Kit will be integrated into the Active Motif portfolio.