By KELLY LOUISEIZE
New revolutionary cancer detection tests are keeping a Northern Ontario biotechnology company in the fast lane with multinationals wooing for partnerships.
Genesis Genomics Inc. is developing a test that will identify whether one is carrying the markers for prostate cancer. The test is successful more than 90 per cent of the time, they say. It has thrust the 14-employee Thunder Bay company into the spotlight with world-renowned labs and big pharmaceutical companies beating a path to their door.
“We are looking to get a strategic partner for the commercialization and distribution of the confirmatory test for prostate cancer,” president Dr. Bob Thayer says.
A fundamental problem with conventional prostate cancer tests is they do not examine a majority of the potentially affected area. Patients with elevated blood levels experiencing swelling or pain are sent for gland biopsies. Conventional biopsy methods of affected areas may show benign results even though small, yet aggressive, tumours exist.
“Unfortunately it misses 82 per cent of young men and 65 per cent of older men,” he says. “Any way you look at it, it is not good news.”
Men often walk out of the office never really knowing whether or not they have cancer, he says.
With Thayer’s method it allows the same gland tissue to be examined for abnormalities through the smaller DNA strand called the mitochondrial DNA. Results are very promising, Thayer says. Sensitivity and specificity rates, which assess the probability of a sick or healthy patient being correctly diagnosed, have come back showing an 80 per cent value.
“We are looking at the very genesis of cancer using the mitochondrial genome and looking at the molecular genes that occur there.”
It is one in a slew of projects currently underway that will evolve cancer detection practices. One of Genesis Genomics’ junior scientists recently returned from Santa Clara, California, where one of the largest convergences of recognized breast cancer scientists shared innovative ways of tackling the disease. Genesis Genomics’ molecular-based tests were part of the discussion, as 40 northwestern Ontario patients are also (taking part) in a breast cancer study. A confirmatory test is expected to come from the research.
A similar test is also being developed for skin cancer. Genesis chief scientist (and shareholder) Dr. Mark Birch-Machin, a leading authority on skin cancer in Europe, is heading up that project.
A product will be launched in the next three to four months. Already on the market, though, are FDA-approved Solaraze and Aldera medications for pre-cancer skin lesions.
Further studies within the new 1,500-square-foot microarray facility will examine mutations in the genes that would produce defective proteins.
In only three years, Genesis Genomics has gathered approximately 1,200 voluntary patients in their database. Not bad for a starter company, but, still, financial challenges seem to plague their progress.
In Canada, biotechnology companies have approximately six months of operating capital before bankruptcy looms, he says. Research and development requires vast sums of money to ensure proper equipment and human resource expertise.
Thayer recalls taking part in a Toronto conference where SMEs are experiencing a lack of risk-taking amongst investors.
“There is no venture capital market in Canada; even the VCs are afraid of risk.”
But that is not deterring the spirit at Genesis Genomics. Thayer says it is not a question of whether Canada will have a biotech industry because it is not an option.
“We will have one. If we don’t, we will lose our economy and people.” Northern Ontario cannot afford to be complacent and Thunder Bay and its local investors have embraced the biotechnology industry as one of their paramount engines for growth. The city has the ability to grow a knowledge-based economy through Confederation College and Lakehead University graduates, while utilizing scientists hired for the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
Recall that the Mayo Clinic started off in the farmlands of Rochester, Minnesota, where all one could see was grain bins for miles. Today, it is one of the finest medical facilities in the world, featuring an integrated clinic and two hospitals staffed by over 1,500 physicians.
“Northern Ontario can make this happen.”
