Thomson Reuters White Paper Explores the Role of Biomarkers in Clinical Trials and...

Thomson Reuters White Paper Explores the Role of Biomarkers in Clinical Trials
and Drug Development

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thomson Reuters
today announced that it has published a new white paper on the topic of
biomarkers drawing on expert insight from academics and key players in the
pharmaceuticals industry. Called "Biomarkers: An Indispensable Addition to
the Drug Development Toolkit," it explores the role of biomarkers as
evaluative tools in addressing some of the challenges seen in clinical
research and their potential to improve decision making, accelerate drug
development and reduce development costs.

Used as a way to measure normal biological processes in the body, pathological
processes, or the response of the body to a therapeutic intervention,
Biomarkers have become an essential part of clinical development because they
potentially offer a faster route to market versus the conventional drug
development approach, where success rates have steadily declined in recent
years. Attrition rates for drugs in discovery and development are currently
very high with less than 10% of tested products entering phase I trials. With
increasing costs involved in the drug development process, and growing concern
that fewer drugs are making it through to the marketplace each year, the
pharmaceutical industry is embracing biomarkers as a way of predicting a drug
candidate's performance early and with a greater degree of certainty.

"The FDA, as well as academic and research organizations, have recognized
Biomarkers as having great potential to speed the development and approval of
medical products," said Wendy Hamilton, vice president of product strategy and
marketing, Scientific business of Thomson Reuters. "Because biomarkers can
predict drug efficacy and safety more quickly than conventional clinical
endpoints, they hold the potential to substantially accelerate product
development, and because they help to identify earlier those drug candidates
that are likely to fail, they reduce drug development costs. In addition,
biomarkers could revolutionize therapeutic treatments in areas such as
oncology, with their capacity to tailor therapies to specific individuals."

"Biomarkers such as Her2 have already shown their effectiveness and benefit in
clinical trials," said Colin Williams, product manager, biology &
bioinformatics, Scientific business of Thomson Reuters. "Many other biomarkers
are following suit in clinical research but selecting the correct biomarker
can be a real challenge. Identifying the correct biomarker in clinical studies
can mean the difference between a drug candidate being approved or not, which
has profound implications for both the patients awaiting treatment and the
financial security of the drug company involved."

Thomson Reuters has expanded the availability of BIOMARKERcenter, its unique
comprehensive resource for biomarker intelligence. BIOMARKERcenter is now
available through several delivery options: as a subscription option to users
of Prous Science Integrity(R), as an XML feed for in-house bioinformatics
solutions and also as a standalone web application. This solution covers
biomarkers identified in literature, patents, conferences, clinical trial
information, and other sources for all major therapeutic areas and is the
first to provide the pharmaceutical industry with a framework for assessing
the potential of a biomarker. BIOMARKERcenter is the most comprehensive
resource of its kind and continues to expand rapidly, with more than 2,000
different biomarkers, and 13,000 unique uses of these biomarkers within its
database.

For further information about BIOMARKERcenter, please go to:
http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/products/biomarkercenter/

To read the full white paper, "Biomarkers: an indispensable addition to the
drug development toolkit," please register online at:
http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/forms/biomarkers/

About Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for
businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative
technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the
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headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota,
Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people in 93 countries. Thomson
Reuters shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TRI); Toronto
Stock Exchange (TSX: TRI); London Stock Exchange (LSE: TRIL); and Nasdaq
(Nasdaq: TRIN). For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

SOURCE Thomson Reuters

Susan Besaw, Scientific, +1-215-823-1840, susan.besaw@thomsonreuters.com