Nanogen,
Inc., developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced
today that it has entered into an agreement whereby the company
acquired rights to genetic markers related to schizophrenia and
responses to antipsychotic therapies. The agreement is between Nanogen
and the Co-operative Research Centre for Diagnostics and Queensland
University of Technology in Australia.
Nanogen plans to utilize the markers to create diagnostic
tests for schizophrenia and related conditions. Some of these markers
may also help predict adverse drug reactions and therefore guide
therapeutic decision-making.
“Schizophrenia affects approximately one percent of
the U.S. population, with an estimated cost to the health care system
of $63 billion annually,” said David Ludvigson,
Nanogen’s president and chief operating officer.
“Due to its complexity - schizophrenia, like many mental
disorders, is believed to be caused by mutations in multiple genes -
development of effective diagnostics and treatments is likely to
require multiplexed analytic methods capable of examining multiple
genes simultaneously.”
Nanogen’s NanoChip® multiplexing platform
was recently submitted for FDA 510(K) clearance, along with the
company’s cystic fibrosis carrier screening test.
The genetic component of schizophrenia is thought to account
for 65-80% of the disease risk. The markers acquired by Nanogen are in
genes that have been linked to schizophrenia in a number of clinical
studies.