Cenix BioScience, Debiopharm partner to develop novel therapeutic drug candidates

Cenix BioScience, a leading preclinical contract research provider and technology developer specialized in RNAi-, miRNA- and high content-driven pharmacology, and Debiopharm Group™ (Debiopharm), a Swiss-based global biopharmaceutical group of companies with a focus on the development of prescription drugs that target unmet medical needs, including oncology and companion diagnostics, today announced that they have signed a research agreement to support Debiopharm in its ongoing efforts to develop novel therapeutic drug candidates.

Under the research framework's first project, Cenix will apply its leading expertise in combining high throughput screening with high content assays in cultured human cells, to identify predictive biomarkers for Debiopharm preclinical oncology candidates. Multi-parametric microscopy-based readouts established by Cenix using the Definiens XD image analysis platform will be used in a range of human cancer cell models to identify genes and pathways that either enhance or suppress the drug's therapeutic effects. As such, the study represents another important illustration of Debiopharm's ongoing drive to integrate cutting edge technologies and powerful post-genomic strategies towards further refining its personalized medicine approach towards the development of new therapeutics.

"We are very excited to launch this new relationship with Debiopharm, extending their repertoire with what we consider to be some of the most strategically powerful cell-based screening paradigms developed to date," said Dr. Christophe Echeverri , CEO/CSO of Cenix BioScience. "We deeply appreciate and are particularly gratified by this implied trust from yet another world-class and forward-leaning drug development organization, who also happens to be a long-standing expert in R&D outsourcing."

"We look forward to working with Cenix, whose specialist expertise, longstanding leadership and unrivaled track record in this field made them an ideal partner," commented Dr. Hiroaki Tanaka , Director of Personalized Medicine, Debiopharm. "The opportunity to benefit from such depth of knowledge, experience and extensively validated capabilities is considered as the most strategically important resource for preclinical biomarkers discovery."