EuroHYP EU Grant Award for Stroke

RNS Number : 5850Z

Proteome Sciences PLC

19 March 2012

 



Proteome Sciences plc

EuroHYP EU Grant Award for Stroke

Blood biomarker analysis in major 1500 patient Phase 3 clinical trial

19^th March 2012  Proteome Sciences plc ("Proteome Sciences") announces that Euro-HYP-1, a consortium of leading academic, clinical and industrial European partners in which it is a member, has been awarded a near €11m grant under the EU Framework 7 programme for new ground breaking research on the treatment of stroke.

Cooling the brain within 6 hours of a stroke has been proven in pilot studies to be remarkably effective in saving patients and reducing brain damage.  The Framework 7 grant will be used to fund an EU-wide multicentre Phase 3 clinical trial in 25 countries involving 60 participating universities to treat 1,500 volunteer stroke victims with mild hypothermia.  Details of the clinical study were released in Brussels earlier today.  (www.eurohyp.org)

For this clinical trial, Proteome Sciences as a consortium member will be undertaking the biomarker analysis of patient samples in blood and using MS based assays that it has developed incorporating proprietary stroke biomarkers it has previously discovered and validated.

Currently the treatment options for stroke are very limited.  The early use of anti-blood clotting drugs and aspirin improve the outcome of patients with ischaemic stroke.  However, typically less than 10% of patients with acute stroke receive anti-blood clotting treatments mainly because of the short time window for effective treatment. Consequently there is a real need for efficient and cost-effective therapies.

Hypothermia - the lowering of body temperature below normal levels - has emerged as one of the most promising future interventions for the therapeutic treatment of acute ischaemic stroke.  It is already used effectively in reducing ischaemic brain injury following cardiac arrest and birth injuries.  Its effect is akin to "hibernation", reducing the need for oxygen in the brain and preventing further damage.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Ian Pike, Chief Operational Officer of Proteome Sciences said:

"We are delighted to be part of the Euro-HYP consortium and to have the opportunity to use our biomarker expertise and assays across this large scale multicentre clinical trial.  Early diagnosis and hypothermic therapy may provide a low cost and effective way to treat the 15m people annually who have a stroke and which is the second leading global cause of death."

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For further information please contact:

Proteome Sciences plc
Christopher Pearce, Chief Executive Officer	Tel: [phone]
James Malthouse, Finance Director
Dr. Ian Pike, Chief Operating Officer
Nominated Adviser
Cenkos Securities plc	Tel: [phone]
Stephen Keys/Camilla Hume
Public Relations
FTI Consulting	IKON Associates
Ben Atwell/Mo Noonan	Adrian Shaw
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Notes to Editors:

About Proteome Sciences

Proteome Sciences is a global leader in applied proteomics and peptidomics offering high sensitivity, proprietary technologies for protein and peptide biomarker discovery, validation and assay development.

Its PS Biomarker Services™ uses isobaric and isotopic Tandem Mass Tag^® (TMT^®) workflows developed on the latest Orbitrap Velos and TSQ Vantage mass spectrometers to deliver rapid, robust and reproducible biomarker assay development for customers in the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotechnology sectors. Services are provided from its ISO 9001: 2008 accredited facilities in Frankfurt, Germany. By combining Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) and TMT workflows highly multiplexed assays can be developed rapidly and are suitable for screening hundreds of candidate biomarkers in larger validation studies and can be transferred for immunoassay development. The Company's own research has discovered a large number of novel protein biomarkers in key human diseases and is focused mainly in neurological/neurodegenerative conditions and in cancer. It has discovered and patented blood biomarkers, including Alzheimer's disease, stroke, brain damage and lung cancer for diagnostic and treatment applications that are available for license or are already outlicensed. Proteome Sciences, based in Cobham, UK, with facilities in London and Frankfurt, delivers outsourced proteomics services and proprietary biomarkers/biomarker assays to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics companies.

Visit:  http://www.proteomics.com

 

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