Oncimmune Holdings (ONC ) said researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have idenitifed ‘remarkable’ sex-specific patterns to SARS-CoV-2 using its technology platform.
A paper by the Los Angeles-based organisation entitled "Paradoxical Sex-Specific Patterns of Autoantibodies Response to SARS-CoV-2 Infection" has focused on the characterisation of sex-specific prevalence and selectivity of autoantibody responses to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The researchers from Cedars-Sinai explained that they used the SeroTag infectious diseases discovery array, part of Oncimmune’s ImmunoINSIGHTS services, to gather their findings.
The aim of the research project was to use the SeroTag array to detect autoantibodies to over 90 antigens previously linked to a range of classic autoimmune diseases, it explained.
The Company commented, “The researchers sought to comprehensively examine the diversity of autoantibody responses in male and female health care workers who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and were asymptomatic, or experienced minor symptoms.”
The results of the study demonstrated the potential of the SeroTagTM Infectious Diseases discovery array to enable a better understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 stimulates the immune reaction and predicts responses to vaccines and therapeutics against the virus, it noted.
Specifically, Oncimmune highlighted to investors that the paper has revealed a ‘remarkable’ sex-specific prevalence and selectivity of autoantibody responses to SARS-CoV-2.
It concluded that further understanding of the nature of triggered and persistent autoantibody activation in men and women exposed to SARS-CoV-2 will be essential for developing effective interventions against acute and chronic immune-mediated sequelae of the virus.
The Group said despite first generation vaccines now being deployed to fight COVID-19, that the need to expand our understanding of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 still exists.
Addresing shareholders, Dr Adam M Hill, CEO of Oncimmune said: "Our work with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is developing very novel insights that will have an important bearing on the management of both short, and long term sequelae of the disease.
He added, “I am delighted that the earliest work packages from our ImmunoINSIGHTS Infectious Disease panel are now being translated into scientific publications, contributing to the knowledge base in order to improve clinical outcomes from the disease. I look forward to reading more from this most active of collaborations shortly."
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Last month, in an update for the year ended 31 May 2021, Oncimmune said it had delivered “outstanding top line growth” as FY21 revenues saw a more than eightfold increase on FY20.
Oncimmune successfully completed an equity placing in March 2021, raising £9m to provide additional funding to increase its ImmunoINSIGHTS commercial team headcount, principally in the US, and to increase its operational capacity at its lab facility in Dortmund, Germany.
To date, the company said its programme to increase capacity to approximately 40,000 samples per annum by Q1 FY23, is ‘proceeding to plan’ and will enable the Company to meet the increasing the demand from customers for its ImmunoINSIGHTS service offering.
In particular, Oncimmune said its ImmunoINSIGHTS offering has emerged through the global pandemic in FY21 ‘as a robust and resilient growth engine for the Company,’
Oncimmune said it expects to sign new contracts in 1Q22 from its ImmunoINSIGHTS pipeline which, together with those contracts already signed in FY21, is expected to deliver revenue of around 50% of the FY22 market expectations for the ImmunoINSIGHTS business.
The company believes that the ImmunoINSIGHTS business, which has a current pipeline of over 100 separate opportunities, is now in a solid position to deliver ‘sustainable growth.’
Shares in Oncimmune were trading 5.00% higher this morning at 168p following the news.
Oncimmune Holdings’ focus is to harness the immune system’s sophisticated response to disease to detect cancer earlier and to support the development of better therapies.
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The company believes the key to improving cancer survival is early detection and optimal selection for therapy. Oncimmune's immuno-diagnostic test, EarlyCDT, can detect and help identify cancer on average four years earlier than standard clinical diagnosis.
Oncimmune’s core technology also powers its ImmunoINSIGHTS service; a proprietary platform that enables life-science organisations to optimise drug development and delivery, leading to more effective, targeted as well as safer treatments for patients.
The group’s EarlyCDT Lung blood test was previously featured on an ITV news broadcast last weekend titled ‘New Blood Test Provides Breakthrough in Lung Cancer Detection Rates’.
The feature highlighted that, in the UK, more than 35,000 people die of lung cancer each year and most have their lung cancer diagnosed late thereby lowering their chances of survival. 80% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed in the latest stages of the disease.
The EarlyCDT test works to identify the immune system's response to the presence of lung cancer. The test detects antibodies present in the body, enabling clinicians to focus their diagnosis on identifying the disease and treating it earlier than current clinical practice.
It has previously been shown that Oncimmune’s EarlyCDT Lung blood test can detect lung cancer on average four years before standard of care and has shown in a large National Health Service (NHS) trial that it can reduce late stage lung cancer presentation by 36%.
Inflection Point to Commercialisation
The Company now believes it has made the point of inflection as it matures from an R&D business into a commercial entity evidenced through its deepening commercial relationships with Industry Partners such as Roche
Fully Funded
The Company is now fully funded to develop all its commercial activities and drive revenues.
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