Alliance for Biomarkers of Muscle Toxicity

A collaborative preclinical study into the biochemical origins of muscle toxicity and associated biomarkers will be conducted by BG Medicine (Waltham, MA, USA) and Mitsubishi Pharma Corp. (Osaka, Japan).

BG-Medicine will apply its proprietary, integrated-systems approach based on proteomics, metablomics, and computational analyses, to describe the molecular effects of lipid-lowering agents on skeletal muscle, and to identify specific plasma biomarkers of these effects. Mitsubishi Pharma Corp. will contribute transcript, clinical chemistry, and histopathology data.

Muscle toxicity of lipid-lowering agents, a common adverse effect of these agents, causes a broad spectrum of symptoms from mild and transient muscle pain to extremely rare, serious muscle destruction.

"This exciting project uses BG Medicine's commercial systems toxicology platform to characterize and compare the molecular effects of two lipid-lowering compounds at the doses in which histopathological changes were observed in muscle in some animals,” said Peter Muntendam, M.D., president and CEO of BG Medicine. "In this context it is a great example of how systems toxicology and pharmacology provide early insightful biology for pertinent drug development treatment decisions.

Under their agreement, BG Medicine and Mitsubishi Pharma Corp. will jointly own certain rights to the project data and biomarkers.



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BG Medicine
Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation