Pharma, diagnostics team on predictive EGFR assay

Boehringer Ingelheim of Germany has entered into an agreement with the UK's DxS to provide a companion diagnostic test kit for Boehringer Ingelheim's compound BIBW 2992 (Tovok) to identify EGFR mutations of in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer.

BIBW 2992 is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that acts by irreversibly blocking the EGFR/HER2 receptors. The DxS EGFR companion diagnostic is a real-time PCR assay designed to detect the most common mutations in the EGFR gene