SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 20, 2015 – Myriad RBM, a wholly owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), today announced that it will assist the Institut Pasteur in a public-private research collaboration to fight the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic. This research project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a grant to the Institut Pasteur.
The proof-of-concept study will evaluate patients with latent and active TB infections who are affiliated with the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) clinical study sites. The goals of this study are to field-test Myriad RBM’s TruCulture® system as a point-of-care blood collection and immune response monitoring method and to stratify patients with active and latent tuberculosis.
“Tuberculosis is a challenging disease. We need better technology to diagnose patients and assess individual immune response to treatment,” said Matthew Albert, co-coordinator of Milieu Interieur and director of the Immunology Department at Institut Pasteur. “Prior studies support the use of the TruCulture system in settings with limited resources, and may help us improve the diagnosis of TB and accelerate the development of new drugs and vaccines to treat the disease.”
Myriad RBM will supply the study with its revolutionary TruCulture collection systems. Once the blood samples are collected, Myriad RBM and the Institut Pasteur will seek to discover protein biomarkers important in regulating the immune system response using Myriad RBM’s proprietary MAP (Multi-Analyte Profiling) platform.
“We are excited to collaborate with the Institut Pasteur on this important Gates Foundation-funded research program. We believe that TruCulture can help to stratify TB patients with latent versus active disease. This will lead to the optimization of treatments and provide better support for vaccine clinical trials,” said Ralph McDade, president of Myriad RBM. “If we are successful, TruCulture may prove to be useful in a multitude of field-based, point-of-care applications, leading to improved patient care.”
About Myriad RBM
Myriad RBM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc. Its biomarker discovery platform provides clinical researchers and healthcare providers with reproducible, quantitative, multiplexed data for hundreds of proteins to advance drug development and patient care. The Company’s proprietary Multi Analyte Profiling (MAP) technology offers preclinical and clinical researchers with broad, cost-effective analyses of multiple proteins from a single, small sample volume. MAP technology also supports Myriad RBM’s drive to develop companion diagnostics in areas of unmet medical need such as neuropsychiatry, nephrology and immunology. More information about Myriad RBM can be found at www.myriadrbm.com.
About Myriad Genetics
Myriad Genetics is a leading molecular diagnostic company dedicated to making a difference in patients’ lives through the discovery and commercialization of transformative tests to assess a person’s risk of developing disease, guide treatment decisions and assess risk of disease progression and recurrence. Myriad is focused on strategic directives to grow our markets, introduce new products, including companion diagnostics, as well as to expand internationally. For more information on how Myriad is making a difference, please visit the Company’s website: www.myriad.com.
Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, myPath, myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan Lung Cancer, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, HRD, Vectra and Prolaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G