CAMBRIDGE, UK (2012-09-03) – ProteinLogic, the biomarker discovery and exploitation company, has been awarded a grant by the Technology Strategy Board – the UK’s national innovation agency – to help support the development of a new Diagnostic Test for Hepatitis B.
ProteinLogic has identified a panel of biomarker proteins that has the potential to form the basis of a simple diagnostic blood test to stratify patients with chronic hepatitis B infection. The Technology Strategy Board funding will enable ProteinLogic to undertake market research to establish whether there is a commercially viable market opportunity and to carry out a small clinical study to provide proof of confidence before committing to an R&D programme to develop the test.
A successful diagnostic test would enable personalised treatment of patients suffering from hepatitis B infection, leading to better clinical outcomes and better compliance. The NHS itself would be expected to benefit from significant savings as the expensive treatments would be targeted to patients that are most likely to have a sustainable response.
ProteinLogic’s Chairman Dr Paul Rodgers said: “We are delighted that the Technology Strategy Board is funding this project. Their funding will allow us to collaborate with Professor Graham Foster at Barts Health and Queen Mary University of London where he leads the Liver Unit’s research programme on clinical and scientific aspects of chronic viral hepatitis. We thank the Technology Strategy Board for its support”
ENDS
Further information:
Dr Paul Rodgers, ProteinLogic Ltd, telephone: +44 (0)1223 703146 paul.rodgers@proteinlogic.com
ProteinLogic
ProteinLogic is a biomarker discovery and exploitation company developing a novel diagnostic platform and diagnostic products that address key unmet medical needs in infection and inflammatory diseases. The Company has developed a proprietary biomarker technology (ImmiPrint®) with potential to diagnose and predict early onset of diseases, and to provide information as to how a disease is likely to develop and respond to particular drug treatments. The technology is based upon the profiling of a discrete subset of immune system proteins (‘sCD’) found in the blood and other body fluids.
ProteinLogic’s development pipeline comprises 14 different ImmiPrint® signatures in disease areas including infectious, inflammatory, autoimmune, oncology and metabolic diseases. Following commercial analysis, the Company has identified a significant unmet need for a simple, rapid, and inexpensive blood test that is capable of diagnosing tuberculosis (TB). Early clinical studies indicate that the ImmiPrint® TB signature may be able to discriminate between active and latent forms of TB. The novel hepatitis B diagnostic test is one of a number of potential follow-on products in the Company’s pipeline.
www.proteinlogic.com
Technology Strategy Board
The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s innovation agency. Its goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit www.innovateuk.org
The funding was awarded by the Technology Strategy Board through its SBRI competition for development contracts “Stratified medicine: Determining patient response”. The competition has been developed in collaboration with the partners of the Technology Strategy Board’s Stratified Medicine Innovation Platform to address the key issue identified in the Stratified Medicine Technology Roadmap to incentivise uptake of new stratified medicine approaches within the UK healthcare system.