Aveo Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company leveraging breakthrough discoveries in cancer biology to discover, develop and commercialize targeted oncology therapies, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted to Aveo US Patent No 7,544,476. This patent covers the use of the expression level of a single gene, HeyL, as a predictive biomarker to identify human tumours that are likely to respond to treatment with inhibitors of the Notch pathway, thus adding to the intellectual property surrounding Aveo's proprietary and translational biology platform.

"The discovery of HeyL as a biomarker of sensitivity to Notch pathway inhibitors will greatly facilitate Aveo's programme to develop monoclonal antibodies targeting the Notch pathway in cancer," said Tuan Ha-Ngoc, president and chief executive officer of Aveo Pharmaceuticals. "The development of improved diagnostics based on the discovery of biomarkers has the potential to accelerate new drug development by identifying, in advance, responsive patients, thus realizing the vision of the company."

The Notch pathway is widely recognized as a potential therapeutic target in the treatment of certain cancers, and is a key regulator of angiogenesis and cancer stem cells.

Aveo is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel, targeted cancer therapeutics. AVEO's proprietary, integrated cancer biology platform enables the company to pursue highly efficient drug development strategies in oncology that increase the probability of clinical success and provides a discovery engine for high-value targets and therapies.