Myriad Genetics, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company, to conduct BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation testing on patients to be enrolled in BioMarin's phase I/II clinical study of BMN 673, a novel PARP-inhibitor drug candidate in patients with advanced or recurrent tumours.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with BioMarin on their exciting new clinical study focused on finding a more effective treatment for genetically-defined cancers,” said Peter Meldrum, president and CEO, Myriad Genetics, Inc. “Furthermore, we believe this demonstrates the importance of BRCA status in identifying potential responders to PARP-inhibitors.”

Under the agreement, Myriad will perform comprehensive BRACAnalysis with large rearrangement testing to identify the presence of germline mutations in the patients prior to enrolling in the study and provide standard test reports to the clinicians. This is the third agreement between Myriad and pharmaceutical companies developing PARP-inhibitors and is consistent with one of the company's goals of becoming a leader in companion diagnostics.

BRACAnalysis is a molecular diagnostic product developed by Myriad Genetics which analyses the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to assess a woman's risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. A woman who tests positive with the BRACAnalysis test has, on average, an 82% risk of developing breast cancer during her lifetime and a 44% risk of developing ovarian cancer. It provides important information that the company believes will help patients and their physicians make better informed lifestyle, surveillance, and preventive medication and treatment decisions.

Myriad Genetics, Inc. is a leading molecular diagnostic company dedicated to developing and marketing novel predictive, personalized and prognostic medicine products to assess a person's risk of developing disease and guide treatment decisions.

BioMarin develops and commercializes innovative biopharmaceuticals for serious diseases and medical conditions and comprises of four approved products and multiple clinical and pre-clinical product candidates.