Ariana Pharma receives funding for IMAkinib oncology biomarker programme

Ariana Pharma, a French supplier of data management tools to accelerate drug discovery and development, is to receive Euro 1m from France's innovation agency, OSEO, as part of the IMAkinib programme. IMAkinib is a collaborative project to develop biomarkers for oncology.

The project leader is oncology specialist Oncodesign. The other team member is Guerbet, which is responsible for radiotracers and clinical trials. The total cost of the programme is estimated at €24.7m over eight years. OSEO will contribute €10.3m.

Data analysis remains a major limiting factor on progress of current work in the field of biomarkers, says Ariana, and the systematic analysis technology in KEM could have a significant impact by overcoming the restrictions inherent in classic statistical analyses. Apart from the IMAkinib programme itself, the project will allow Ariana to develop its expertise by extending the application of its KEM technology to the field of in vivo biomarkers.

In the IMAkinib project, Ariana will contribute towards the multi-objective optimisation of radiotracers and the selection of best candidates. KEM can shorten the time needed to develop biomarkers and thereby reduce costs. The automatic exhaustive detection of possible biomarkers enables a better selection and a lessening of the risks linked to the choice of tracers.

'Ariana's inclusion in this programme is important as it will build even more power and reliability into our decision support technology KEM developed over the last several years,' said Mohammad Afshar, chief executive of Ariana Pharma.