Avacta targets tailored medicines

DRUG technology firm Avacta says it is well placed to take advantage of the growing market in personalised medicines in the wake of a partnership focusing on finding new treatments for serious depression.

Curidium, a personalised medicine company bought by Avacta last year, has completed a three year project working with Takeda Pharmaceutical looking at patients with depression.

People with similar symptoms can respond to treatment in different ways and the project worked to categorise patients so that the drugs they receive can be tailored specifically to their body chemistry.

Smita Price, managing director and head of research at Curidium, said: “I am thrilled with the outcome of our research collaboration with Takeda.

“The discovery of patient subpopulations with common molecular mechanisms could potentially have a significant impact on the development of improved treatments for patients with depression.”

Curidium has developed a technology called Homomatrix that helps scientists identify patients with different responses to diseases.

Alastair Smith, chief executive at York-based Avacta, said: “Personalised medicine and companion diagnostics are without doubt an area of significant growth and future value, and Avacta is now well placed to devise companion diagnostics and to develop proprietary technology on which such diagnostic tests could be delivered.”