Immuron (ASX:IMC) and One Way Liver (OWL Metabolomics), a leader in the field of metabolomics and liver diseases diagnostics, have signed a collaboration agreement to evaluate and validate the efficacy of non-invasive markers for the development of a NASH companion diagnostic to IMM-124E.
According to Immuron, samples collected from the 120 patients to be enrolled during the NASH Phase II trial will be tested to assess the performance of the OWLiver test and some would be subjected to full metabolomics analysis.
"Should results be promising, the companies will then proceed to work on a companion diagnostic," said the company.
“OWL Metabolomics and our team of liver research professionals are extremely excited to be involved in such an important partnership with Immuron," said OWL Metabolomics’s CEO Dr Pablo Ortiz. "Newly-developed drugs are becoming more targeted for many diseases, while regulatory authorities increasingly seek more specific technologies in evaluating early-stage drug candidates and determining the most appropriate patient selection for a given drug. We fully anticipate that our novel testing will serve as a robust surrogate marker for specific histopathological changes in the liver.”
Immuron CEO Mr Thomas Liquard added, “We are very excited by the great potential of this collaboration, “The only accepted diagnostic tool for NASH today is a liver biopsy, which is arguably not applicable in the clinical setting as a monitoring tool. We look forward to create a validated biomarker and companion diagnostic to improve clinical care for NASH patients when treated with Immuron's compound.”