Abbott Laboratories and Pfizer Inc., have decided to jointly venture into a project which is designed to match a genetic test (from Abbott Molecular, a unit of Abbott Labs) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a completely new drug to treat.

This is based on a relatively new concept - personalized medicine. In this concept the physicians use new technologies to identify the particular details of a patient's biochemistry tests and treatments to meet his individual medical need.

Abbott Molecular will develop a test that identifies the presence of gene rearrangement in NSCLC tumors.

Gene arrangement is also known as trans-location and it tells about a situation where a gene is in a different location than is should actually be in. Gene rearrangement is a very favorable condition to facilitate the conversion of a normal cell into a cancerous one.

The phenomena of trans-location can be seen in other types of cancer as well, including prostrate breast, thyroid, and myeloma apart from few others.

Abbott's test will aim at identifying 6 to 7 percent of people with NSCLC cancer who have gene arrangement. They will later on be the participants for the clinical trials of Pfizer's drug, PF- 02341066, which specifically targets cancer-causing genes.

This kind of project being undertaken by these two drug giants will be repeated by other companies for other cancers and chronic diseases as new gene tests and innovative technologies are developed which are more affordable and effective.