GE Healthcare has signed a licensing agreement with Dyax to develop and market peptides binding to c-Met.
The license includes application of the peptides in positron emission tomography (PET), single proton emission computed tomography (SPECT), and optical imaging.
GE Healthcare medical diagnostics research head Marivi Mendizabal said growth factor receptors such as c-Met are therapeutic targets that could be a critical factor in the development of colorectal, lung and liver oncology drugs.
Dyax president and chief executive officer Gustav Christensen said the agreement validates the strength of the company’s core phage display library technology to support GE Healthcare’s work to aid the development of treatment options for patients.
"With 18 Dyax-derived antibody or peptide programs currently in human clinical trials, we continue to demonstrate the utility of Dyax’s proven and highly successful engine to power both therapeutic and diagnostic development," Christensen added.
GE Healthcare said it will present initial preclinical data on c-Met imaging at the American Academy of Cancer Research meeting from 31 March – 4 April in Chicago, Illinois, US.