DNAPrint Genomics to research Ritalin-like compounds with Massachusetts college

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, March 3 - DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. announced Friday that it has entered into a research sponsorship agreement with the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for the potential development of Ritalin-like compounds as possible medications for drug abuse, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression.

The research will be conducted under the supervision of Mark Froimowitz, a researcher at the Boston-based college that recently licensed the compounds to DNAPrint Genomics, according to a company news release.

The compounds are analogs of Ritalin, a well-known drug used for treatment of ADHD and designed specifically to take effect slowly but last longer, thus reducing their potential for abuse and a patient's required daily dosage, officials said.

DNAPrint said its researchers and Froimowitz will be working closely to develop "theranostic" test/drug combinations based on the compounds designed to ensure that patients receive the appropriate medicine and proper dosage based on a patient's genetic constitution, officials said.

Theranostic test/drug combinations are designed to reduce efficacy and side effect problems associated with conventional drug treatments.

"These Ritalin-like compounds present an ideal opportunity for our goal to develop products for personalized medicine," said chairman and chief medical officer Hector J. Gomez, who also heads the clinical development for the company's newly formed subsidiary, DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in the release.

"DNAPrint's capabilities in genomics and the college's expertise in pharmaceuticals represent a powerful synergy in the field of theranostic drug research," Gomez added.

These compounds have a number of desirable properties and possible therapeutic indications. The possibility of linking their clinical use to patient genomics represents the future of drug development, officials said.

DNAPrint Genomics is a Sarasota, Fla., developer of genomics-based products and services in two primary markets: biomedical and forensics. DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, develops diagnostic tests and theranostic products (drug/test combinations) using the company's proprietary ancestry-informed genetic marker studies combined with proprietary computational modeling technology.

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