The10 percent solution

Myriad Genetics Inc. and partner Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. have discovered a gene, called Coronary Heart Disease 1 (CHD1), correlated with cardiovascular disease in humans that the company says could lay the basis for a new approach to treating heart disease. But the gene is associated with only about 10 percent of the families with a history of heart disease that MYGN studied, raising the question of how the discovery can be used to develop drugs for a broader population.

Although he would not disclose CHD1's pathway, Dennis Ballinger, MYGN's director of coronary heart disease research, said that it has not previously been associated with cardiovascular disease. MYGN also has determined that the pathway is associated with other metabolic diseases such as diabetes and dislipidemic disorders, he said...