| Stephen P.A. Fodor |
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Questioner 1:
When you joined Affymax, did you aim to produce the GeneChip array or did you join the company with different aims. How did you come up with innovation at Affymax and create Affymetrix?
Fodor:
When I first joined Affymax, the goal was to develop methods to build large sets of chemical compounds. The principle goal was to be able to screen receptors for a pharmaceutical use. During our research, we developed the microarray both for peptides and DNA but primarily for polymer base chemistry. I saw a great potential of being able to build highly complex arrays of DNA and so I eventually left Affymax to create Affymetrix in order to focus on this technology. I also point out that this was not a view widely appreciated at the time and many people thought that we were somewhat crazy to pursue this idea. In fact, a number of companies at that time would approach us and ask even if you could make this chip, what would you use it for? But fortunately we were well-funded and have good connections with people like Lubert Stryer, Alejandro Zaffaroni, Paul Berg and others in order to pursue this technology.
Questioner 2:
I have three questions: You have developed the GeneChip array with ten thousand SNP markers. When are you going to launch it and what will be the price? What are reasons for selecting ten thousand markers? What are the accuracy differences between conventional methods and the new GeneChip array with ten thousand SNP markers?
Fodor:
These are very good questions. Let me answer them in a slightly different order. First of all, ten thousand SNP markers were chosen because of the simplicity of the assay and the goal of getting the product into user hands as soon as possible. We feel that the assay technology itself is highly scalable and in fact, we can scale the technology to analyze hundreds of thousands of DNA markers. To your point about cost, this type of parallel technology will instantly drop the cost per SNP analysis drastically, very similar to the way that microarrays in general reduce the cost per gene in expression analysis. This chip is in beta-testing now. For specific pricing and availability, I would encourage you to speak with our Affymetrix KK representative here in Japan, Sadashi Suzuki. We chose ten thousand markers because of the very high performance and accuracy.
Questioner 3:
You mentioned that the drug development period can be shortened by using DNA chips. I would like to know in detail how you can shorten the drug development period? It may be related to the company's regulation of each health regulatory body.
Fodor:
The main reason the technology is being used in the drug development pipeline is number one, to select better targets, number two, to evaluate drug efficacy against those targets at very early stages, and probably most importantly, to make an early judgment on whether the potential drug is a good candidate to take further on in commercialization. Actually, it is a risk mitigation strategy to lower the risk and the expense of pursuing compounds that are not promising. In addition, it is also a tool to evaluate individual response in the clinical evaluation of the compounds and to get a better understanding of why particular drugs fail on certain individuals or elicit a toxic response.
Matsubara(Chairman):
Thank you very much, Dr. Fodor. I was very impressed with your marvelous talk giving us the impression of the power of the DNA microarrays in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and drug discovery. And then I was very impressed with your presentation of recent progress in the analysis of SNPs with the new technologies. I felt somewhat relieved that in a part of your talk you mentioned the contribution of the studies to human diversity and development. And finally, you gave a very impressive talk about cutting edge of the modern technologies where you and your colleagues are going and how they will be contributing to the human society. Thank you very much.
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