Oncotech Ready to Launch Trials

This is the year privately held Oncotech Inc. has been waiting for.

The Irvine-based biotech outfit, founded 11 years ago, will test its method for isolating which standard therapies for breast cancer won’t work in individual cases. It aims to assess how tumor tissue from a cancer patient resists certain drugs, thus enabling cancer specialists to prescribe therapies more likely to work.

The company wants to sign up 100 to 150 patients at various medical centers for tests that will run for two years. Oncotech, which employs about 90 individuals, mostly in Irvine, provides lab testing of cancer tissues for hundreds of hospitals.

It expects to finance the trials with $2 million from its giant corporate marketing partner, Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. The money is part of $5.5 million Pharmacia & Upjohn agreed to provide last year in exchange for rights to market Oncotech’s lab services.

Barbara Marsh covers health care for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7762 and at barbara.marsh@latimes.com