News & Events

Sparks, MD USA (February 25, 1999) -- BD Gene, BD’s venture in molecular diagnostics, announced today that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Millennium Predictive Medicine, Inc. (MPMx), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM) to develop novel cancer diagnostic and pharmacogenomics tests. The five-year, genomics-based research collaboration will focus on melanoma, prostate, colon, breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers.

The goal of the alliance is to develop diagnostic and pharmacogenomic tests for cancer patients. The novel diagnostic tests will be molecular tests that can describe a patient’s current medical condition and provide prognostic and therapeutic information. Pharmacogenomics is the study of how a patient’s genes determine his or her response to a specific therapeutic. Overall, the alliance will aim to develop tests designed to provide individualized diagnostic and prognostic information, assist in treatment selection for patients with cancer, and improve the prediction of patient healthcare outcomes. MPMx will supply markers that are clinically validated to BD, which will configure the markers into commercial diagnostic products. BD also has the right to use the markers in pharmacogenomic services, for pharmaceutical companies to aid in patient stratification in drug clinical trials.

The alliance will significantly contribute to BD Gene’s molecular portfolio. It will provide novel, proprietary content for BD’s molecular platforms and it significantly broadens the portion of the diagnostic field that BD participates in. Oncology is an ideal application for nucleic acid-based methods as well as the best opportunity to forge linkages between diagnostics and therapy. These types of diagnostic tests will define medical decision points more precisely. It is our belief that these new diagnostic products will play a significant role in changing the practice of medicine by providing physicians with specific knowledge of the prognosis of an individual’s disease, and how to treat that disease more effectively.

Deborah Neff, President, BDBioSciences; Caroline Popper, BDBioSciences General Manager, BD Gene; and JoAnn R. Boland, Director, Molecular Oncology Programs, BD Gene.