SEQUENOM Identifies More Than 120 Candidate Disease Genes, Most of Which Indicate Broad Population Impact
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SEQUENOM(TM) (Nasdaq: SQNM - news), a discovery genetics company, today announced that it has now cumulatively identified more than 120 candidate disease genes, most of which indicate an impact on the health of 5 to 20 million individuals in the United States alone. Initial studies suggest associations to disease areas including diabetes, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depression. SEQUENOM owns 11 patents and has more than 50 pending patent applications based on these associations. The Company expects to complete screening of the human gene content and identify additional high-impact genes, which the data suggests may total up to approximately 400, by the middle of this year.* (Photo: newscom.com )
``By the very nature of our approach, each of the high-impact genes we identify has significant market potential,'' said Toni Schuh, Ph.D., SEQUENOM's President and Chief Executive Officer. ``Today's pharmaceutical companies have no shortage of targets. The challenge is prioritizing targets to use resources more efficiently. SEQUENOM believes it has the strategy required to achieve this objective and the technology required to execute it quickly. Our genetics-based solution is poised to increase the cost-efficiency and success of drug target discovery and clinical development.''
SEQUENOM's novel population genetics approach identifies high-impact genes by monitoring how frequency distributions of genetic variations, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), shift over age. This approach takes advantage of the pinpoint accuracy and unique specificity of the Company's MassARRAY(TM) technology together with a comprehensive DNA bank of approximately 15,000 age-stratified, healthy individuals. In addition, the Company has up to approximately 20 million clinical data points from about 100,000 samples collected worldwide, including twins, disease-affected families, isolated (founder) populations and drug trial subjects to conduct its disease gene association studies. SEQUENOM intends to form collaborations to further characterize and commercialize a considerable portion of the candidate genes identified, while retaining a fraction of the most compelling targets for internal diagnostic and drug development.
``We believe that in addition to identifying significant disease gene targets, our population genetics approach inherently validates each target in humans through a direct correlation with health or disease,'' said Andi Braun, M.D., Ph.D., SEQUENOM's Chief Medical Officer. ``With this ability to identify genes that significantly impact human health, we are setting the stage for saving up to hundreds of millions of dollars of research and development costs and several years of effort normally incurred at the front end of drug research. Ultimately, this should expedite the downstream development of diagnostics and therapeutics, and help lead to the development of novel drugs for treating or eliminating disease for millions of people.''... |
