Small Business Grants to Develop Personalized Cancer Tests

20/20 GeneSystems Inc. in Rockville, Maryland said today that the company has received nearly $3 million in two grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop tests for helping oncologists predict the effectiveness of targeted cancer therapies. The grants were awarded under NCI’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program.

20/20 says more than 20 targeted therapies have been approved over the last 10 years but they typically benefit only a subset of patients to whom they are administered. This creates missed opportunities and wasted money for patients who could be helped with more effective drugs.

The larger of the two awards is $2.75 million for developing a companion diagnostic that predicts tumor response to drugs that target, or are impacted by activation of the mTOR pathway, a protein kinase that regulates cell growth and proliferation. Drugs on the market made by Pfizer and Novartis that treat kidney cancer would be included.

This grant is an SBIR Phase 2B “Bridge Award” that requires matching funds from outside and non-federal investors, which in this case are being provided by several private investors as well as $200,000 from the Maryland Biotechnology Center (MBC).

The company also won a $200,000 Phase 1 (proof-of-concept) SBIR grant directed at the development of a test to predict kidney tumor response to drugs that target the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway. Both tests use 20/20’s technology, known as Layered- Immunohistochemistry (L-IHC), which allows for the simultaneous detection of multiple biomarkers in a single tissue section.