Jun 1 2012
Molecular diagnostics company Insight Genetics and Kindstar Globalgene
(Beijing) Technology, Inc., China's leading diagnostics company, today
announced that the companies are partnering to enhance cancer care in
the People's Republic of China and surrounding regions.
The new partnership begins with a licensing agreement that allows
Kindstar to add Insight Genetics' Insight ALK Screen™ lung cancer test
to Kindstar's growing menu of tests that improve cancer diagnosis and
patient care. Kindstar's diagnostic services, which are offered from its
laboratories in Wuhan, Beijing and Shanghai, help physicians properly
diagnose diseases and allow them to develop treatment plans for patients
suffering from hematologic malignancies, solid tumors, and genetic
diseases.
Insight Genetics' unique test broadens the company's ability to help
doctors select the best possible treatments for patients with non-small
cell lung cancer. Kindstar expects to launch Insight ALK Screen to its
clinician and hospital customers throughout China, the Special
Administrative Region of Hong Kong, and Macau in July 2012.
"Adding Insight ALK Screen to our menu of tests is just the beginning of
what we see as a broader strategic relationship with Insight Genetics,"
said Shiang Huang, MD, chief executive officer of Kindstar. "With
Insight ALK Screen, we can offer clinicians more detailed information on
their patients' particular forms of cancer so they can determine the
most effective treatment course. Working with Insight Genetics over the
long term, we see great opportunity to collaborate on the creation of
additional tests that will help us spread the benefit of personalized
cancer care to more people in China and surrounding regions."
Insight ALK Screen is a real-time PCR-based test that detects
cancer-causing fusions and mutations of anaplastic lymphoma kinase
(ALK). ALK fusions and mutations have been shown to be a contributing
cause in approximately 5-10 percent of lung cancers. The test offers
fast, accurate and comprehensive results that inform a physician if a
patient's cancer is associated with ALK.
Knowing if a patient is ALK fusion-positive assists clinicians in
determining if the patient can be treated with an ALK inhibitor, an
emerging class of cancer therapy. Since only patients with ALK fusions
are likely to respond to ALK inhibitors, accurate diagnostic screening
is essential before prescribing ALK-targeted drugs.
"Kindstar is truly leading the way in enhancing China's healthcare
system by making advanced diagnostics more widely accessible," said Eric
Dahlhauser, Chairman and CEO of Insight Genetics. "We're proud to offer
Insight ALK Screen to physicians across China, Hong Kong and Macau, and
more importantly, begin our partnership with Kindstar to find ways that
we can collaborate to enhance and personalize cancer care around the
world."
Comparison testing has shown that Insight ALK Screen has many benefits
over other ALK testing methods, including fluorescent in situ
hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The assay offers
the accuracy and reliability advantages of a qPCR platform without the
need for validated primer pair for each fusion. Unlike a
variant-specific multiplex strategy, Insight ALK Screen™ can detect the
presence of any fusion within the ALK gene. It also can identify ALK
upregulation without using a secondary platform.
In addition to the proven role it plays in select lung cancers, ALK has
been found to have a pathogenic role in many cancers including diffuse
large B-cell lymphoma, inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor, esophageal
squamous cell carcinoma, colorectal cancer and breast cancer. It is
estimated that more than 1,300,000 new cancer diagnoses globally each
year can be linked to ALK mutations and fusions.
Source: Insight Genetics