Companies to Codevelop Diagnostic Test for Schizophrenia

A test that provides earlier and more accurate diagnosis of the disease will deliver not only improved patient outcomes but also reduce the overall costs of schizophrenia to health services and society.

The current diagnosis of schizophrenia is highly subjective and time-consuming, due to the lack of objective biologic tests specific for the disease. The resulting uncertainty in diagnosis leads to delayed treatment, and, in turn, extended suffering and hardship for patients and their families. In those cases where early treatment has been implemented in high-risk patient groups, poor outcomes were substantially reduced, as were the duration of untreated illness, inpatient days, and the time to remission.

Rules-Based Medicine, Inc. (RBM; Austin, TX, USA), a multiplexed biomarker-testing laboratory, will partner with Psynova Neurotech (Cambridge, UK) to codevelop and commercialize the blood test for schizophrenia. The companies will focus on the unmet clinical need for an objective and reliable diagnostic test to accelerate and optimize the treatment of schizophrenia. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will collaborate on the validation, regulatory approval, and manufacture of a diagnostic blood test for schizophrenia that will be sold worldwide exclusively by RBM.

Schizophrenia is a complex, progressive, seriously debilitating psychiatric disorder that affects 1.1% of the population in the United States. It accounts for one-quarter of all mental health costs and takes up to one-third of psychiatric hospital bed occupancy. Direct costs such as general practitioner and specialist consultation, community psychiatric nursing visits, hospital admissions and drug treatment, and indirect costs, which are dominated by lost productivity through incapacity, unemployment and premature mortality, are estimated to total US$40-60 billion each year.

"Complex diseases like schizophrenia are an ideal fit for RBM's multiplex testing approach,” said RBM CEO T. Craig Benson. "By combining RBM's expertise in assay development and testing services with Psynova Neurotech's proprietary biomarkers, we can improve the standard of care for schizophrenia, ultimately providing significant savings to healthcare systems worldwide. We anticipate that this is the first of many collaborations between the two companies, further leveraging other discoveries made by Psynova and the Cambridge Center for Neuropsychiatric Research (Cambridge, UK)”



Related Links:
Rules-Based Medicine
Psynova Neurotech