New DNA chip to detect a patient’s predisposition for sudden cardiac death

BY BIOCAT

Catalan biotechnology firm Ferrer inCode presented a new genetic/clinical service yesterday, developed in collaboration with Gendiag and the Brugada Institute, to diagnose diseases associated with sudden cardiac death. A DNA chip allows doctors to confirm clinical diagnoses and identify direct family members with a genetic predisposition in order to take effective preventative measures.

The event, which began at eight in the evening and lasted until past eleven, took place at the Macba Convent dels Àngels in Barcelona. Attendees included more than one hundred doctors from around Spain and a number of directors of organizations in the healthcare sector, including Jordi Ramentol (CEO, Ferrer Group and President of Farmaindustria), doctors Fernando García Alonso (Medical Director, Ferrer Group), Josep Brugada (Medical Director, Barcelona Hospital Clínic) and Ramon Brugada (Dean of Girona Faculty of Medicine and Head of Service at Josep Trueta Hospital); Manel Martínez (CEO, Gendiag) and doctor Montserrat Vendrell (CEO, Biocat), among others.

A new tool for personalized medicine

In Spain there are roughly 30,000 cases of sudden death each year. There are an estimated 300,000 deaths per year in Europe and some 460,000 in the United States, 20% of which have a significant genetic base.

Ferrer inCode’s commitment to developing personalized medical services based mainly on genomic, proteomic and metabolomics technology has made this innovative service a reality.  It offers:

• Individual or multiple sequencing of 44 genes associated with a phenotype, which is recommended in cases where a specific genetic disease has been diagnosed or there is reason to suspect it.

• Analysis of the genes involved in structural diseases like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy (24 genes) and arrhythmogenic diseases like Brugada syndrome, long QT syndrome, short QT syndrome, polymorphic right ventricular tachycardia and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (24 genes) using the most advanced sequencing techniques.

• An advice report created by a group of international experts.

This is complemented by two biochips for structural disease, thanks to a distribution agreement with Partners Healthcare (previously Harward-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics).

Ferrer inCode —which is the result of a strategic joint venture between pharmaceutical company Ferrer and biotechnology firm Gendiag— expects middle term turnover to be between €20 and 30 millions in their genetic area.