Immunovia announces collaboration with NCI, regarding early detection of pancreatic cancer in the new onset diabetes risk group

Immunovia and NCI (National Cancer Institute), has in a memorandum of understanding agreed to collaborate towards a common goal of cancer biomarker development and validation, in particular regarding early detection of pancreatic cancer in the risk group of new onset diabetes over 50 years.

LUND, Sweden ― Immunovia AB is delighted to announce a collaboration with the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) which is a program within the National Cancer Institute (NCI) with a mission to discover, develop, and validate biomarkers for risk assessment, detection, and molecular diagnosis and prognosis of early cancer. The overall goal of EDRN is to establish validated cancer biomarkers that are ready for large-scale clinical testing to improve early cancer diagnosis.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed for the collaboration, the NCI EDRN and Immunovia intend to:

-   establish a framework for cooperation between Immunovia and NCI for validation projects designed to improve early cancer diagnosis, particularly regarding early detection of pancreatic cancer in the newly onset diabetes risk group.
- exchange scientific information on relevant biomarkers to be considered for validation
- identify other joint opportunities relevant to the missions of the NCI EDRN and Immunovia

Pancreatic cancer has one of lowest survival rates of any major cancer type and a mortality exceeding breast cancer. The key to improve prognosis lies in early detection. Based on a number of clinical trials, Immunovia has identified the first blood based biomarker test that now will be validated in hereditary high risk individuals undergoing annual screening for early pancreatic cancer detection.

“It is Immunovia’s intention to expand the validation studies of IMMrayTM PanCan -d to the risk group of newly onset diabetic patients. This collaboration with EDRN of the National Cancer Institute in USA is a very important step to achieve this. Patients aged over 50 suffering from diabetes are a large group and their risk for developing pancreatic cancer is up to 6-8 times greater than normal”, clearly an important clinical unmet need, commented Mats Grahn, CEO, Immunovia.

“The NCI EDRN and Immunovia share a common desire to further cooperation and partnership in the field of cancer biomarker development and validation, and we acknowledge the importance of public/private partnerships to advancing cancer research. Early detection of pancreatic cancer in high risk groups such as newly onset diabetes is a key to improved survival in this devastating disease. We are pleased to work together with Immunovia to reach these goals”, commented Sudhir Srivastava, Ph.D, Chief, Cancer Biomarkers Research Group, Division of Cancer Prevention, NCI.

For more information, please contact:  

Mats Grahn  

Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Immunovia 

Tel.: +46-70-5320230 

Email: mats.grahn@immunovia.com 

About Immunovia

Immunovia AB was founded in 2007 by investigators from the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University and CREATE Health, the Center for Translational Cancer Research in Lund, Sweden. Immunovia’s strategy is to decipher the wealth of information in blood and translate it into clinically useful tools to diagnose complex diseases such as cancer, earlier and more accurately than previously possible. Immunovia´s core technology platform, IMMray™, is based on antibody biomarker microarray analysis. The company is now performing clinical validation studies for the commercialization of IMMray™ PanCan-d that could be the first blood based test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In the beginning of 2016, the company started a program focused on autoimmune diseases diagnosis, prognosis and therapy monitoring. The first test from this program, IMMray™ SLE-d, is a biomarker signature derived for differential diagnosis of lupus, now undergoing evaluation and validation. (Source: www.immunovia.com) 

This information is information that Immunovia AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above. 

Immunovia’s shares (IMMNOV) are listed on Nasdaq First North in Stockholm and Wildeco is the company’s Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit www.immunovia.com.