Ascenion Mediates Licence Agreement between medac and MHH for New Diagnostic Test in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL)
Hanover Medical School (MHH) and medac GmbH have closed a licence agreement providing the company with exclusive worldwide rights to a diagnostic test that can help guide Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) treatment. The deal was initiated and negotiated by Ascenion GmbH, the MHH's exclusive partner for IP asset management.
ALL is the most common type of cancer in children. But the disease also affects adults, especially those aged 65 and older. Standard therapy involves multiple phases of chemotherapy and radiation applied over a period of 2 to 3 years. An essential component is the targeted treatment of the central nervous system (CNS). Without this, about 50% of patients will experience a relapse. Available diagnostic techniques, however, identify only about 3-5% of ALL patients as being CNS positive.
"The new MHH method allows a more precise assessment of CNS involvement," inventor Martin Stanulla comments. "Based on this, physicians will for the first time be able to adapt the intensity of CNS-targeted therapy to the risk profiles of individual patients. This is an enormous advantage because CNS-targeted treatment has severe side effects. It is considered neurotoxic, and cranial irradiation may eventually even lead to brain tumours."
Whereas traditional diagnosis of CNS involvement is based on the morphological evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid, the new test detects mRNA expression of the cytokine IL-15 in leukemic bone marrow using PCR techniques. Results from intense research into this field at the MHH confirm IL-15 as valuable marker for assessing CNS involvement and suggest that the cytokine plays an important role in the migration of leukaemic cells into the CNS.
"These findings provide a valuable opportunity for the treatment of patients with ALL," Christian Stein, CEO of Ascenion comments. "We are glad to have attracted medac as licencee. With its strong track record in cancer treatment and diagnostics, the company is an ideal partner to develop a diagnostic kit and make it broadly available to physicians and ALL patients."
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Topic world Diagnostics
Diagnostics is at the heart of modern medicine and forms a crucial interface between research and patient care in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. It not only enables early detection and monitoring of disease, but also plays a central role in individualized medicine by enabling targeted therapies based on an individual's genetic and molecular signature.
Topic world Diagnostics
Diagnostics is at the heart of modern medicine and forms a crucial interface between research and patient care in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. It not only enables early detection and monitoring of disease, but also plays a central role in individualized medicine by enabling targeted therapies based on an individual's genetic and molecular signature.
