Neuroscience-focused digital technology company Ixico just nabbed a contract for imaging clinical trial services from Spanish biotech Araclon.
The trial is a phase 2 on Araclon’s Alzheimer’s vaccine candidate dubbed ABvac40. Ixico will use its imaging data management platform TrialTracker to collate results from positron emission tomography (PET) and MRI scans, and its patent-protected image analysis technology to evaluate patient eligibility, assess target engagement and quantify drug effects in patients.
Ixico has been providing end-to-end imaging services to the biopharma industry, academia and medical charities since 2004, the company said on its website. Through a reverse takeover of Phytopharm, Ixico embarked on London Stock Exchange’s AIM for smaller growing companies in 2013.
Focused on clinical data management and analysis for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s, as well as the diagnosis and management of dementia in clinical practice as an offspring, the company said it has commercial relationships with nine of the top 15 pharma companies.
In August 2015, the company announced that it reached a $1 million-per-year partner agreement that runs at least seven years with an unnamed leading global pharmaceutical company. For 2016, the public biotech reported £3.1 million (about $4 million) in revenue and the establishment of four new contracts in Alzheimer’s clinical trials with a combined value of over £3 million.
That dealmaking momentum has apparently continued into 2017. In March, it signed a new contract worth $1.5 million with an existing top 10 pharma customer.
Besides TrialTracker, the company’s another core service, an EU CE-marked medical device called Assessa, helps healthcare professionals measure information about the brain, diagnose neurological disorders and detect the underlying causes.
The Araclon candidate targets the amyloid-beta 40 protein using the C-terminal part of the amyloid-beta peptide as vaccine antigen instead of the N-terminal fragment, which most other therapies under development are aiming at.
The project is also supported by some Spanish institutions such as the Zaragoza University, said Araclon’s CSO Manuel Sarasa. The current phase 2 will determine the dosage and the drug’s safety and tolerability observed in phase 1. The biotech also has an immunotherapy against the amyloid-beta-42 protein later in its pipeline.