AstraZeneca and Abbott link to develop tralokinumab companion diagnostic

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) has entered an agreement with US health care firm Abbott (NYSE: ABT) to develop companion diagnostic tests to identify patients with severe asthma who are most likely to benefit from the investigational biological therapy tralokinumab.

Developed by AstraZeneca's MedImmune research and development arm, tralokinumab has been tipped by analyst Seamus Fernandez of Leerink Partners as having the potential to bring in $1.8 been in sales at peak. To date, no companion diagnostic blood tests have been approved for use in asthma.

Under the terms of the agreement, Abbott will develop and commercialize diagnostic tests to measure serum levels of the proteins periostin and DPP4 (dipeptidyl peptidase-4), which have been identified as potential predictive biomarkers of up-regulated IL-13 in severe asthma. The tests will be developed in conjunction with AstraZeneca’s Phase III trial of tralokinumab, a potential treatment for patients with severe, inadequately controlled asthma. Periostin has been previously described as a potential biomarker for asthma, and DPP4 is a novel and promising predictive biomarker identified by MedImmune.