Vanda, LabCorp to pursue genetic test for treatment of schizophrenia patients

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Two biotech companies are teaming up in the hope of developing a genetic test to determine if someone is genetically predisposed to developing schizophrenia.

Rockville-based Vanda Pharmaceuticals is partnering with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings of Burlington, N.C., to apply information Vanda discovered as it developed a drug candidate for schizophrenia toward genetic testing. Vanda was working on Fanapta, an antipsychotic drug still under review by the Federal Drug Administration.

The plan is to work with LabCorp on commercializing a series of diagnostic tests to pick out these markers, according to a Thursday press release. Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.

The mental disorder schizophrenia affects more than 2 million Americans. Genetics is known to contribute to one’s risk of developing schizophrenia, said Dr. Jeffery Lieberman, chair of psychiatry at Columbia University, but that there is no proven genetic marker at this point that indicates the potential for the disease.

“Everyone’s fascinated with the Human Genome Project and genotyping,” Lieberman said. “But for mental illness, there is absolutely nothing which has been significantly validated in a way that is clinically informative yet.”

melissa.frederick@dcexaminer.com

Advertisement