WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 10, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On-Q-ity, a next-generation oncology diagnostics company developing personalized and predictive tests to improve cancer therapy effectiveness, today announced a strategic alliance with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings® (LabCorp). LabCorp will market On-Q-ity's novel and proprietary circulating tumor cell (CTC) platform to the biopharma industry to greatly accelerate and improve the cancer drug discovery and development process.
"On-Q-ity's CTC platform will provide researchers with a cost effective, easy-to-use and extremely accurate approach to find and characterize tumor cells circulating in a patient's blood," said Mara G. Aspinall, Chief Executive Officer of On-Q-ity. "These CTCs are a very early indicator of the presence of cancer, but in the past they have been difficult to capture. Our CTC technology can today find and characterize these elusive cells, providing a faster and more efficient way for drug developers to monitor the effectiveness of new therapies."
"LabCorp's well-established clinical trial business will help us get On-Q-ity's groundbreaking technology into the hands of researchers as quickly as possible, ultimately changing the way cancer is treated," said Ms. Aspinall.
LabCorp selected On-Q-ity's system for this partnership to meet its clients' growing research needs. "On-Q-ity's 'liquid biopsy' technology, with its strong capture capabilities, will allow LabCorp to offer our clients insight into tumor growth and regression much earlier in the clinical trial process without requiring invasive tissue biopsies," said Andrew Conrad, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of LabCorp. "We are excited to collaborate with such an innovative company to accelerate the growth of personalized medicine using CTCs."
On-Q-ity's proprietary technology will offer drug developers numerous methods of optimizing their drug discovery processes, including the ability to:
- better stratify patients who would be appropriate for trial inclusion or exclusion
- more quickly identify patients eligible for study enrollment
- monitor cancer response to treatment with greater precision
- use CTCs as an earlier indicator of treatment effectiveness
About On-Q-ity
On-Q-ity is a next-generation diagnostics company transforming cancer treatment through non-invasive diagnostic monitoring. The company is developing innovative diagnostics to identify the unique characteristics of an individual's cancer, predicting the response to therapy, and monitoring the efficacy of treatment. Headquartered in Waltham, MA, On-Q-ity is funded by Atlas Venture, Bessemer Venture Partners, Mohr Davidow, Northgate Capital and Physic Ventures. For more information visit our website: www.On-Q-ity.com.