Companies Plan to Commercialize Breath-Based Detection of Lung Infection and
Transplant Rejection
Owlstone Medical, the global leader in Breath Biopsy® for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, is a
Fungal lung infection is a large risk for certain vulnerable people such as transplant patients, where one-year survival rates for invasive aspergillosis following lung transplant is only 59 per cent. This is largely because antifungal therapies are not appropriate for patients who are on immunosuppressants, and so early and reliable diagnosis of fungal infection is critical.
The current gold-standard diagnostic procedures for lung transplant rejection require the regular collection of tissue samples from the lung, which is invasive, expensive and can lead to serious complications. There is therefore a clear need for a better solution. Owlstone Medical's non-invasive Breath Biopsy platform represents a better approach to current methods, which alongside SQI's deep experience in lung transplant diagnostics will be used to identify and deploy novel breath-based biomarkers that can indicate early rejection of organs in lung transplant patients.
"With SQI's strategic interest in lung transplant biomarkers, we're excited to collaborate with Owlstone in applying the discovery, development and commercialisation of biomarkers of acute cellular rejection and perhaps chronic rejection," said
Highlights of the MOU include:
- Owlstone Medical is conducting independent clinical trials to validate breath-based volatile organic compounds to diagnose Invasive Aspergillosis with high levels of performance.
- SQI and Owlstone Medical will agree on the most appropriate regulatory strategy for the tests and, as necessary, liaise with the appropriate regulatory authorities to seek approval of the breath collector as a medical device and/or the approval of the lung transplant rejection in vitro diagnostic test (IVD).
- Owlstone Medical will own and patent any inventions arising from the lung transplant rejection discoveries and offer an exclusive, worldwide license to SQI to commercialise the biomarkers for clinical use. SQI will undertake reasonable commercial efforts to develop and commercialise the lung transplant rejection test.
This non-binding MOU is intended to be used for negotiation purposes only, and to express the present intention of the parties with respect to the terms and conditions of a proposed relationship between the parties. The MOU does not constitute a binding commitment, or an offer to enter a binding commitment.
About
About Owlstone Medical (www.owlstonemedical.com)
Owlstone Medical's vision is to save 100,000 lives by realizing the enormous promise of breath-based diagnostics through the development and application of Breath Biopsy®. The Breath Biopsy platform includes ReCIVA®, a proprietary sample collection device that can take stable breath samples anywhere, the world's only commercial
Owlstone Medical is deploying the platform to address some of the key challenges of 21st century healthcare. The focus is on the development of Tests and RUO Panels for the early detection of disease with an emphasis on cancer, and on precision medicine with liver and respiratory disease of particular importance. The Breath Biopsy OMNI (Owlstone Medical Novel Insights) Assay is Owlstone Medical's comprehensive solution for end-to-end breath sample collection and VOC analysis, which is being deployed with large pharma including AstraZeneca,
Contact:
Chief Financial Officer
437-235-6563
mreddock@sqidiagnostics.com
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