Horizon forms new cancer advisory board

pharmafile | November 12, 2014 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing Cambridge, Horizon Discovery, Karin Schmitt, Paul Morrill, biotech, sab 

UK biotech Horizon Discovery has formed a new Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for its diagnostics arm to recommend better cancer patient care and guidelines for assay standardisation. 

The SAB will be formed of key opinion leaders from the industry, the Cambridge-based firm says in a statement. “Horizon Diagnostics will utilise these guidelines to further evolve its strategy for personalised medicine, which has already delivered a suite of molecular reference standards.” 

The company adds: “These products are genetically defined, quantitative and highly reproducible, allowing for improved companion diagnostic development, performance and ultimately testing. The reference materials include standards for the increasing number of ‘rare’ mutations being targeted for cancer therapeutics, which by definition are hard to find in clinical samples.” 

Experts in the molecular diagnostics testing fields of immunohistochemistry (IHC), Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), next-generation sequencing (NGS), and quantitative PCR (qPCR), will all form the newly-created SAB. 

This includes the chief executive of Transgenomic, Paul Kinnon – who has previously provided consulting services to Horizon Diagnostics whilst a partner at Arch Global Research – as well as Dr Ben Ho Park, associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Park’s work is focussed on the development of novel treatments for breast cancer.

Joining them will be Dr Shashikant Kulkarni – whose work covers FISH and NGS – and Dr Regan Fulton – who works in the use of diagnostic IHC, and currently serves on the College of American Pathologists IHC Committee and the Workgroup for IHC Validation Guidelines.

The line-up is completed by two members of the Products group at Horizon Discovery – senior vice president Dr Paul Morrill and R&D director Dr Karin Schmitt. 

Morrill concludes: “Horizon Diagnostics is passionate about and committed to making a difference in cancer healthcare and we are delighted to have secured such eminent SAB members to further help reach the goal of better patient outcomes through better testing.”

George Underwood

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