23andMe and GSK Head to Clinical Trials With Cancer Drug
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U.K. drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc and genetic-testing giant 23andMe Inc. have begun their first joint human clinical trial as part of a collaboration to leverage the Silicon Valley firm’s DNA database to develop drugs.
The companies said that they enrolled their first patient this month in early-stage trials for a drug that targets human tumors. The drug is an antibody that works to block CD96, a protein that plays a role in modulating the body’s immune responses. The theory is that blocking it will help control the activity of another molecule in the body called CD155 that is often over-expressed in malignant human tumors.