There is a clear need to better define patient-specific treatment strategies for the use of both standard and novel therapies for treating Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) both to improve efficacy and reduce unnecessary side effects. Eutropics Pharmaceuticals is uniquely positioned to improve therapy efficacy for AML by using a proprietary assay that provides a novel predictive biomarker, BH3 profiling. The assay uniquely assesses mitochondrial functionality in cancer cells. This technology is proven in a patient test set to predict the patient responsiveness to standard treatments for AML. In this phase I contract Eutropics will deliver a refined standard operating protocol for a FACS based version of the BH3 profiling assay while seeking CLIA 88 approval. Biopsied AML patient samples will be obtained from several academic cancer centers under collaboration agreements that are in place and sent to Eutropics labs in Cambridge, MA. Data collected from the assay will be correlated with patient outcome data collected by physicians. Eutropics will apply for the phase 2 study that will deliver a clinically validated test for AML and companion diagnostic test for standard of care and experimental AML treatments. Discussions are underway for commercial collaborations.
