Parsortix Research Partnership

RNS Number : 1345Y

Angle PLC

27 February 2012

 



For immediate release

27 February 2012

ANGLE plc ("the Company")

Parsortix Update

RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP WITH THE PATERSON

INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH   

ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL) is pleased to announce that Parsortix Inc ("Parsortix"), its 90% owned portfolio company which specialises in cancer diagnostics, has signed a two year research agreement with the Cancer Research UK-funded Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, The University of Manchester's world-leading cancer research institute. 

ANGLE will be working with the Paterson Institute's Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology Group (CEP), which specialises in circulating tumour cells (CTCs).  The Parsortix CTC research at the Paterson will be led by CEP director Professor Caroline Dive and her deputy Dr Ged Brady. 

The Paterson Institute has had acclaim for its work validating bio-markers based on CTCs, which have specific relevance for the treatment of cancer patients.  As recently as November 2011, Professor Dive's Group won the Cancer Research UK Translational Cancer Research Prize for work that included defining the prognostic utility of CTCs in lung cancer patients. Application of CEP's expertise in bio-markers will be highly beneficial to facilitating the development of Parsortix's CTC capture device and taking this to market, ultimately to benefit cancer patients.

The main areas of focus for the collaborative work will include:

·    cancer patient blood studies to provide further independent confirmation of the performance of the Parsortix device and to optimise its design;  

·    development of research and clinical applications of the Parsortix device utilising cancer bio-markers;

·    evaluation of the Parsortix cassette CTC capture characteristics in relation to other CTC technology platforms;

·    in-depth comparative studies to support regulatory approval submissions by Parsortix for CE marking in Europe and FDA approval in the United States.

In addition to Parsortix's focused in-house capability, outsourcing research and development activity provides ANGLE with cost-effective access to world class expertise, capability and facilities and provides the CEP group with new avenues to extend its CTC research.

The Paterson Institute is a key opinion leader in the cancer field and we believe that its active involvement in the development of new applications for Parsortix's cancer diagnostic device will assist greatly in the marketing of the product first to the research market and then for clinical use to assist treatment decisions in cancer patients.

Professor Caroline Dive, Group Leader, Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, commented:

"We are delighted to be working with ANGLE.  The Parsortix cell separation technology offers the potential for improved capture of CTCs from cancer patient blood and, since it does not rely on antibody affinity capture, has the potential to be both more effective and more widely applicable than existing techniques.  We hope to be able to recover viable CTCs from the Parsortix device and be able to detect useful predictive and/or pharmacodynamic bio-markers, which will enable both an improvement in patient treatment and better targeted, more effective clinical trials of new cancer drugs in the future."

ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:

"The Paterson Institute has world-leading knowledge of CTCs and first hand experience of working with existing and developing CTC capture techniques. It is also a leader in research on the bio-markers that can be detected on CTCs.  We believe that this research partnership will significantly help us to optimise our cancer diagnostic product and bring it to market as quickly as possible."

For further information:

ANGLE plc	01483 685830
Andrew Newland, Chief Executive Ian Griffiths, Finance Director
Cenkos Securities Stephen Keys, Adrian Hargrave (Nominated adviser) Andy Roberts (Sales)	020 7397 8900
Buchanan Mark Court, Sophie Cowles	020 7466 5000
Scott Harris Stephen Scott, Harry Dee	0207 653 0030

About the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research

http://www.paterson.man.ac.uk/Research/groups.aspx?id=8   

The Paterson Institute for Cancer Research is a leading cancer research institute within The University of Manchester, core funded by Cancer Research UK, the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world.

Research within the Paterson Institute spans the whole spectrum of cancer research, from programmes investigating the molecular and cellular basis of cancer, to those focussed on translational research and the development of therapeutics.  The Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology Group (CEP), was established in 2004, to fulfil the pressing medical need for bio-marker-focused translational research and is co-directed by Professor Caroline Dive and Professor Malcolm Ranson. 

The CEP team was awarded the 2011 Cancer Research UK Prize for Translational Cancer Research. The prize recognises the work of researchers at the Cancer Research UK-funded Paterson Institute, The University of Manchester, Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and AstraZeneca, who together have contributed to transforming the field of bio-marker research and early clinical trials.  The team has had many successes in using bio-markers - substances that can be measured to determine several factors such as how well a patient is responding to a treatment - to enhance clinical trials and has been involved in over 70 clinical trials since 2004.  The team's accomplishments in translational research in lung cancer are an example of the many achievements that were recognised by the panel. They have discovered that circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in lung cancer patient blood can be used to predict response to treatment and thereby ensure better selection of treatment options for patients.

 

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