Abcodia will license access to serum biobank for cardiovascular disease biomarker work

Abcodia is throwing the doors open to its serum biobank, with plans to let researchers tap into the reservoir of patient samples for cardiovascular disease-related biomarker research.

The U.K. biomarker validation company said its serum biobank is stocked with more than 5 million samples, 3.5 million of which are longitudinal, or from the same group of people taken over a period of time. More than 200,000 women who took part in an ovarian cancer trial donated the samples, and 50,000 of the patients gave samples annually. This won't be a free endeavor, of course. Abcodia said it will license access to the serum samples for an undisclosed price.

This could help drugmakers and diagnostic companies alike in the quest to develop better ways to spot and treat cardiovascular disease. Abcodia noted that longitudinal samples taken over time from the same, large group of people offers a potentially ideal way, statistically, to discover new biomarkers and mark how far a disease has advanced. The approach, they said, could also help researchers better design clinical trials for new, targeted treatments, with a goal of detecting cardiovascular disease sooner than current standards of care allow.

It is also intriguing that the female patients donated the samples. Treatments are often developed and tested on male patients first--and they can display symptoms of cardiac diseases in a different way than women. Biomarker, diagnostic and treatment development based on this biobank could help address that treatment gap.

Abcodia said its biobank includes samples from patients with atherosclerosis, angina, heart failure and other conditions. Participating patients disclosed demographic data, and Abcodia can also match healthy volunteers.

Abcodia has also pursued collaboration deals to advance biomarker development. Last year, for example, it allied with Cancer Research UK to develop new blood tests designed to spot early stage cancers. Their goal, in part, is to zero in on new biomarkers that could help clinicians find cancer even before patients develop symptoms.

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