Biodesix Inc. and Immodulon Therapeutics Limited, the immune-oncology company, today announced that they have entered into a biomarker research collaboration. The partnership will focus on the analysis of the circulating proteome of advanced pancreatic cancer patients treated with IMM-101 using the Biodesix Diagnostic Cortex™ machine learning platform.
The Biodesix proprietary machine learning platform builds on recent advances in the artificial intelligence field to uncover clinically relevant and elaborate biomarker patterns and relationships. This enables personalized approaches to therapy selection and a better understanding of complex diseases like cancer. IMM-101 is Immodulon’s investigational immunotherapeutic candidate under development for various tumour types, including advanced pancreatic cancer.
Dr Jaap Kampinga, Immodulon’s CEO, said, “In the IMAGE 1 randomised clinical trial, metastatic pancreatic cancer patients receiving IMM-101 and gemcitabine benefitted from a 59 percent increase in median overall survival compared to those receiving gemcitabine alone. There was considerable variability, as is typical in pancreatic cancer, with some patients surviving much longer than others. From this collaboration and by utilizing the Biodesix Diagnostic Cortex in identifying blood-based proteomic biomarkers, we hope to facilitate selection of those patients most likely to respond to IMM-101. This could improve the efficiency of treatment and patient care, and accelerate our clinical trial programmes.”
“Our proprietary Diagnostic Cortex machine learning-based biomarker discovery platform is well suited to advancing the clinical research for IMM-101,” said David Brunel, Biodesix CEO. “This research collaboration with Immodulon builds on our track record of developing companion diagnostics to optimize treatments with the potential to deliver much needed therapies to critically ill patients.”
About Biodesix
Biodesix is a lung cancer diagnostic solutions company addressing the continuum of patient care from early diagnosis of lung nodules through late stage cancer. The company develops diagnostic tests addressing important clinical questions by combining simple blood draws and multi-omics with the power of artificial intelligence. Biodesix is the first company to offer three best-in class tests for patients with lung disease. Biodesix also has multiple pipeline tests including one with the potential to identify patients who may benefit from immunotherapies. The Biodesix Lung Reflex® strategy integrates the GeneStrat® and VeriStrat® tests to support treatment decisions with results in 72 hours. The Nodify XL2™ nodule test, which will be commercially available in the second half of 2019, evaluates the risk of malignancy, enabling physicians to better triage patients to the most appropriate course of action. Biodesix also partners with the world’s leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to solve complex diagnostic challenges. For more information about Biodesix, please visit www.biodesix.com.
About Immodulon Therapeutics
Immodulon Therapeutics Ltd. is a privately-owned clinical-stage immuno-oncology company primarily focused on the development of safe, effective and novel treatments for cancer. Its lead drug candidate, IMM-101, has shown promise in early clinical trials, demonstrating potential for the platform. It contains heat-killed whole cell Mycobacterium obuense which activates dendritic cells and other cells of the innate immune system by several mechanisms, including via Toll-like receptors. Its mechanism of action should not only make this product applicable to a range of cancers but, in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors and other standard-of-care treatments, it is expected to enhance their efficacy without increasing the safety burden for the patient. For more information about Immodulon, please visit www.immodulon.com.
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