PredictImmune to Develop and Commercialize Prognostic Tool for SLE
PredictImmune is planning to expand its pipeline with the development of new strategies to support personalized care for people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and other inflammatory diseases.
This follows the U.K.-based company’s acquisition of worldwide licensing rights over Cambridge Enterprise’s algorithms and software. The new deal grants PredictImmune “first right of refusal” to technology that will allow the development and commercialization of a prognostic test to help monitor SLE progression.
The initial agreement had already allowed the company to globally pursue predictive strategies to evaluate patient outcomes in other relapsing-remitting autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
“The announcement today will allow us to expand our product portfolio to include SLE, which will enable the benefits of prognostic testing to be brought to millions of new patients in the future,” Paul Kinnon, CEO of PredictImmune, said in a press release.
“Our aim is to support clinicians in providing a more personalised approach to the individual patient’s disease and we see this agreement as another very positive development towards that goal; giving clinicians the tools to gain a better understanding of each patients’ disease profile.”
Working in collaboration with Ken Smith, professor in the department of medicine at the University of Cambridge, PredictImmune has developed the first validated, predictive test for IBD. That test, called PredictSURE IBD, is being marketed as a tool for guiding treatment options in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
The assay recognizes a set of blood biomarkers that are differently produced in patients with severe IBD, compared with those with the mild form of the disease at the time of diagnosis.
The predictive IBD assay, which is currently available in the U.K. and Ireland, has been shown to predict the severity of the disease with 90–100% accuracy. It is a simple blood test that uses equipment and techniques already available in many hospitals.
“The launch of PredictSURE IBD, has, for the first time, provided IBD patients with vital information about the likely course of their disease at the point of diagnosis,” Kinnon said. “[The most recent agreement] is yet another step forward in our journey to expand our reach across additional therapeutic areas and is a very exciting development for PredictImmune.”
