PARIS - GenOdyssee, a French genomics research firm devoted to the functional analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in support of the drug discovery process, has achieved its initial objective of developing a high-throughput genotyping platform with a capacity of 10,000 genotypes per day.

It is currently offering its services to third parties at a price of US90 cents per genotype.

CEO Jean-Louis Escary said the company "is now focusing its genotyping effort on developing a platform that will be capable of handling a flow of 30,000 genotypes per day by next January for an appreciably lower price than the one we are offering our customers today." He told BioWorld International that GenOdyssee's price would be brought down to "a maximum of 50 cents" in January and that "we want to be able to offer a price of 20 cents by the end of 2001."

"In two years time," he went on, "pharmaceutical companies will need several million genotypes a year, and when demand reaches that level, the industry will not pay more than a few cents per genotype." He added that it was important to develop the necessary high-throughput, low-cost capacity well in advance."

GenOdyssee, which has its corporate headquarters at the Ginoptle, France's national biotechnology research and business park at Evry, and its research center at Les Ulis, another science and technology park southwest of Paris, also has developed a SNP discovery platform based on the use of a multiplexing method for which it has an exclusive worldwide license and which utilizes D-HPLC (denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography) technology. It currently has the capacity to analyze up to 1,700 samples per day for the discovery of SNPs in genes, and that capacity is due to be doubled by the end of the year.

The company is offering customers two types of service. One takes the form of collaborations for the discovery of genetic mutations in genes indicating predisposition and/or resistance to various common diseases, using data generated by the sequencing of the human genome and functional polymorphism analysis. The second is the supply of improved methods for identifying genomic profiles that have a positive or negative interaction with therapeutic compounds in clinical trials.

Escary disclosed that GenOdyssee was finalizing an initial SNP discovery and genotyping contract with a European biotechnology company that would be worth about FFr1.7 million (US$235,000).

At the same time, GenOdyssee is undertaking an in-house research program aimed at building up a portfolio of patents in a particular therapeutic field, which will be used to develop tailor-made drugs adapted to the genomics profile of the individual patient. The company completed an initial funding round in June in which it raised EUR8 million (US$7.7 million) from a group of French venture capitalists.