Cambridge Cognition (COG) said it has won a £1 million contract as the cognitive assessment partner for a late phase cancer trial focused on improving outcomes for cancer patients.
The Group, which provides digital solutions to assess brain health, said this contract marks its second win for a top ten pharmaceutical firm ‘with a strong pipeline of oncology products.’ The revenue from the contract is expected to be recognised over the next six years.
According to GlobalData, oncology is the leading therapeutic area for drug development and accounted for nearly a third of clinical trials in 2020. Therefore, the Company said this latest contract positions the business within the world's most consistently active disease space.
According to Cancer Research UK, cancer survival has doubled in the last 40 years in the UK.
Cambridge Cognition explained that with patients now living longer, there is a greater focus on limiting potentially detrimental long-term side effects of both diagnosis and treatment.
It said one key area is cognitive impairment, for which deficits have been reported in 90% of patients with brain tumours and an estimated 30% of patients following chemotherapy. Cognitive decline associated with cancer can affect attention, memory, and executive function.
Cambridge said it has been selected by the top ten pharmaceutical group as the cognitive assessment provider for the company’s oncology trial under the belief that the Group’s CANTAB cognitive assessments ‘have the sensitivity to measure these distinct processes.’
Consequently, the Company explained that CANTAB will be used worldwide to determine preservation or improvement in cognitive function across all 150 trial sites.
Matthew Stork, Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Cognition, commented: "Earlier detection and advances in treatment have led to considerable improvements in cancer survival rates and, at the same time, increased attention on the cognitive side-effects.”
Shares in Cambridge Cognition have seen an over two-fold increase since the beginning of 2021. The stock was trading 8.21% higher this morning at 178p following the news.
He added, “This pharmaceutical client has a long-standing commitment to improving outcomes for cancer patients and we are delighted to be supporting their efforts. We expect that this could become a considerable growth area for Cambridge Cognition in the future."
Last week, the Company announced the completed spin-out of Monument Therapeutics, a drug development firm applying digital phenotyping to central nervous system disorders.
The firm has a pipeline of drug development programmes, with the most advanced two being for cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and for post-operative cognitive dysfunction.
The initial targets are both areas of unmet clinical need with limited treatment options; firstly, for Schizophrenia, which affects around 20 million people worldwide and for which there are no approved treatments for the common cognitive impairment associated with the disorder.
Secondly, it will address postoperative cognitive dysfunction ("POCD"), a condition arising from major surgery, which can result in cognitive impairment for patients over the age of 65.
Matthew Stork, Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Cognition, said, "By establishing Monument Therapeutics, we have created an exciting new venture to develop stratified medicine in CNS drug development that could help many patients with unmet clinical needs.
It leverages Cambridge Cognition's intellectual property and provides the potential for considerable royalty payments in the future. In addition, it gives the Company greater focus on the development and commercialisation of its cutting-edge digital health technologies."
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