Biomarker Bulletin: July 24, 2013

Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes

Biomarker Bulletin is an occasionally recurring update of news focused on biomarkers aggregated at BiomarkerCommons.org. Biomarkers are physical, functional or biochemical indicators of normal physiological or disease processes. The individualization of disease management — personalized medicine — is dependent on developing biomarkers that promote specific clinical domains, including early detection, risk, diagnosis, prognosis and predicted response to therapy.

• Big Data From Alzheimer’s Disease Whole Genome Sequencing Will Be Available to Researchers Due to Novel Global Research Database
  The Alzheimer’s Association and the Brin Wojcicki Foundation announced recently that massive amounts of new data have been generated by the first “Big Data” project for Alzheimer’s disease. The data will be made freely available to researchers worldwide to quickly advance Alzheimer’s science.
• Abbott Announces New Test to Help Doctors Determine Personalized Treatment Path for Patients with Hepatitis C
  Abbott recently announced that it has introduced the first FDA-approved hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotyping test for patients in the United States. Abbott’s fully automated RealTime HCV Genotype II test determines the specific type or strain (referred to as the genotype) of the HCV virus present in the blood of an HCV-infected individual. Genotyping the HCV virus provides physicians with important information they can use to create a personalized, targeted diagnosis and treatment path to improve clinical outcomes.
• Cambia Health Solutions and GNS Healthcare to Co-Develop Next Generation Medication Adherence Platform Using Big Data Analytics
  Cambia Health Solutions and GNS Healthcare recently announced they are collaborating to build a platform for harnessing data-driven predictive models focused on medication adherence. The partnership will focus on predicting Meaningful Adherence™ – identifying where improving medication adherence can have the most meaningful impact on clinical and cost outcomes.
• U.S. FDA Approves Gilotrif (afatinib) as First-line Treatment for Lung Cancer Patients with EGFR Mutations
  Boehringer Ingelheim announced last week that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved afatinib tablets under the U.S. brand name GILOTRIFTM for oral use, as a new first-line treatment for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumours have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations as detected by an FDA-approved test.