TIDMEKF TIDMAGL
RNS Number : 9395C
EKF Diagnostics Holdings PLC
23 January 2015
EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc
("EKF", the "Company")
PointMan(TM) collaboration with ANGLE plc
EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), the AIM listed
point-of-care, central laboratory and molecular diagnostics
business, announces that it has agreed a collaboration with
specialist medtech company ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL), to investigate the
combination of ANGLE's Parsortix circulating tumour cell (CTC)
harvesting platform with EKF's PointMan(TM) DNA enrichment
technology as a liquid biopsy.
The collaboration will initially work on colorectal cancer and
then expand to cover other cancer types. CTCs will be harvested
from cancer patients' blood using ANGLE's Parsortix system and then
analysed using PointMan(TM) DNA enrichment technology (EKF
Molecular Diagnostics) to identify genetic variation in the
cancer.
ANGLE believes that the combination of ANGLE's Parsortix system
with EKF's PointMan(TM) technology may be advantageous for two
reasons. Firstly, the PointMan(TM) system preferentially amplifies
variant sequences of interest whilst suppressing amplification of
the wild type i.e. normal DNA. As a result it has the potential to
identify all mutations in gene sequences associated with clinical
utility of targeted cancer therapies. In contrast competing genetic
analysis systems generally amplify only those areas which may be
predicted to be mutant and therefore may miss unexpected mutations.
Secondly, the system is highly sensitive with the ability to work
with very low levels of target material, potentially as low as one
CTC. The high purity of the Parsortix harvest (low white blood cell
contamination) and its epitope independence (does not use antibody
capture) may enable the combined system to be widely deployed
across different cancer types and stages of disease.
Cancer patient blood samples will in the first instance be
processed under ANGLE's existing research collaboration with the
University of Surrey and the Royal Surrey County Hospital. The
University of Surrey Oncology Department has already processed 20
colorectal cancer patient samples with the Parsortix system and
stored the harvested cells for analysis. This bank of samples is
ready for analysis and should enable the collaboration to make
rapid progress towards initial proof-of-principle.
If the collaboration is successful, ANGLE and EKF will explore
ways to offer their respective systems as a combined solution
addressing first the pharmaceutical drug trial and research use
market and then, as patient data are developed, the clinical
market.
ANGLE's patented Parsortix system can harvest very rare CTCs in
cancer patient blood - even when there is less than one CTC in one
billion healthy cells. The resulting liquid biopsy (simple blood
test) enables the investigation of mutations in the patient's
cancer for personalised cancer care. The Parsortix system is
"open-source" and has been designed to work with all existing
analytical procedures in the same way that the existing solid
biopsy provides cancer cells for a wide variety of analytical
procedures.
ANGLE's commercialisation strategy is to establish a series of
partnerships with multiple leading diagnostic companies to offer a
complete solution to the oncologist. ANGLE believes this is the
optimal approach for unlocking the multi-billion dollar worldwide
market available to the Company and its potential strategic
partners.
Partners will be selected for their specialist technical
capabilities enabling new high medical utility applications and/or
their market strength and existing installed base of diagnostic
systems enabling accelerated market adoption of the Parsortix
system.
Julian Baines, CEO, EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc, commented:
"Our PointMan(TM) DNA enrichment technology has demonstrable
performance in the detection of ultra-low level mutations. The high
purity of the CTCs harvested by ANGLE's Parsortix system and the
absence of immunomagnetic beads gives us confidence that it will be
effective with the Parsortix harvested CTCs providing rapid
molecular information to the oncologist."
ANGLE's Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland,
commented:
"We are delighted to announce this collaboration with EKF. The
combination of ANGLE's Parsortix system with EKF's PointMan(TM)
system has the potential to provide a complete solution for the
oncologist. We look forward to an early proof-of-principle."
Enquiries:
EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc Tel: 029 2071 0570
David Evans, Executive Chairman Mob: 07740 084 452
Julian Baines, CEO Mob: 07788 420 859
Paul Foulger, CFO Mob: 07710 989 255
Canaccord Genuity Limited Tel: 020 7523 8350
Nominated Adviser/Corporate
Broking
Lucy Tilley /Julian Feneley /Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor
/Cara Griffiths
Walbrook PR Limited Tel: 020 7933 8780 or ekf@walbrookpr.com
Paul McManus Mob: 07980 541 893
Lianne Cawthorne Mob: 07584 391 303
For more information about EKF Molecular and PointMan(TM) please
visit: www.ekfmolecular.com
About EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc - www.ekfdiagnostics.com
EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc was formed in July 2010 following
the acquisition of EKF-diagnostic GmbH for EUR14.32m and refocused
its strategy to one of building a substantial point of care
diagnostics business. As part of this strategy, the Group has
integrated three further acquisitions, Quotient Diagnostics Limited
(acquired in September 2010), Argutus Medical Limited (acquired in
December 2010) and Stanbio Laboratory L.P. (acquired in June 2011).
In 2013 EKF established a new subsidiary, EKF Molecular Diagnostics
Ltd, to focus on molecular and companion diagnostics and acquired
360 Genomics Ltd, a business that owns diagnostics technologies for
cancer gene detection.
The Company, with its head office in Cardiff and operations in
London, Germany, Poland, Russia, Ireland and the US, is a leading
diagnostics business, focussing on the development, production and
distribution of chemical reagents and analysers for the testing of
Glucose, Lactate, Haemoglobin, Haematocrit and HbA1c.
In March 2011 EKF entered into a distribution agreement with
Alere Inc ("Alere"), a global diagnostics company, under which
Alere was appointed the exclusive distributor of EKF's CLIA waived
Hemo Control device and cuvettes in the US, Canada and United
Kingdom. The device is distributed in the US under the name
HemoPoint H2.
In March 2014, EKF acquired Separation Technology, Inc., a
Florida based manufacturer of in vitro diagnostics devices for the
haematology testing market. In April 2014, EKF completed the
acquisitions of Selah Genomics Inc., a US based developer of
molecular diagnostics for personalised medicine and DiaSpect
Medical AB., a Swedish based manufacturer of point-of-care
haemoglobin analysers.
About ANGLE plc - www.angleplc.com
ANGLE is a specialist medtech company commercialising a
disruptive platform technology that can capture cells circulating
in blood, such as cancer cells, even when they are as rare in
number as one cell in one billion blood cells, and harvest the
cells for analysis.
ANGLE's cell separation technology is called the Parsortix
system and it enables a liquid biopsy (simple blood test) to be
used to provide the cells of interest. Parsortix is the subject of
two granted US patents and three extensive families of patents
being progressed worldwide. The system is based on a microfluidic
device that captures cells based on a combination of their size and
compressibility. The Parsortix system is established with strong
positive evaluations from leading cancer research centres and is
working with these cancer centres to demonstrate key applications.
Parsortix has a CE Mark for Europe and FDA authorisation is in
process for the US.
The analysis of the cells that can be harvested from patient
blood with ANGLE's Parsortix system has the potential to help
deliver personalised cancer care offering profound improvements in
clinical and health economic outcomes in the treatment and
diagnosis of various forms of cancer.
The increase in cancer to a 1 in 3 lifetime incidence is set to
drive a multi $billion clinical market. The Parsortix system is
designed to be compatible with existing major medtech analytical
platforms and to act as a companion diagnostic for major pharma in
helping to identify patients that will benefit from a particular
drug and then monitoring the drug's effectiveness.
Now that the Parsortix system has been developed, ANGLE is
focused on its commercialisation in the market.
ANGLE has established formal collaborations with world-class
cancer centres and is working with these cancer centres to
demonstrate key applications for its Parsortix non-invasive cancer
diagnostic system as a liquid biopsy. Details are available here
http://www.angleplc.com/the-company/collaborators/
As well as cancer, the Parsortix technology has the potential
for deployment with several other important cell types in the
future.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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