REGENSBURG, Germany and OXFORD, England – ( BUSINESS WIRE ) – Leading MRI diagnostics company numares AG announced today that the company has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Oxford University Innovation . This enables numares to translate and exploit the preliminary work of Oxford University on multiple sclerosis (MS) biomarkers for the development of an urgently needed in vitro diagnosis (IVD) test capable of detecting disease progression earlier to improve patient management and outcome. The exclusive license allows numares to further develop biomarkers into a multi-marker based diagnostic test and their commercialization.
In approximately 85% of MS patients, the disease initially follows a relapsing-remitting course. Most patients with "relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS)" will eventually progress to "secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS)" with continued worsening of symptoms. This transition occurs subtly and is difficult to define clinically, requiring a retrospective evaluation of the course of the disease during the last 12 months. This delay in diagnosis prevents the timely adoption of treatment regimens for effective patient management and better long-term clinical outcomes.
The collaboration between Oxford University and numares began in 2017 with the common goal of validating a set of biomarkers, which had previously been identified by Oxford researchers, to detect the transition of EMRR to EMPS. This was done using clinical data acquired from a multicenter cohort collected by the Oxford partners.
numares provided their property AXINON ® IVD system providing Standardized magnetic group signaling (MGS ®) measurements of metabolite levels in patient samples from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Based on these NMR data, the company develops multiple marker algorithms for various diagnostic tests, combining relevant biomarkers into "constellations of biomarkers" and applying machine learning and other modeling approaches.
"We are excited to enter the next phase of the collaboration and use the excellent preliminary scientific work from Oxford and the experience of numares for the development of a MS IVD test based on the multiple marker approach," he says. Volker Pfahlert, CEO of numares . "Our mission is to improve patient care by providing better diagnostic tools to help clinicians better manage their patients. This fruitful collaboration with Oxford researchers brings us closer to our common goal of bringing world-class research to the bedside. of patients with MS ".
Professor Daniel Anthony Head of the Laboratory of Experimental Neuropathology, Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford and lead scientist on the project, adds:
"We are very pleased to have an experienced industrial partner in numares to commercialize the results of our research as a revolutionary test, enabling early detection of the transition from RRMS stage to SPMS stage for the first time. This will have a significant impact on the care of people living with MS. The test opens the possibility of monitoring the condition more closely and thus improving therapeutic decision-making. "
Development of IVD will begin in 2022. In early 2021, both parties also agreed to extend their partnership for another two years and expand the focus of the use of multiple markers in diagnosis to the field of Alzheimer's disease.
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