Cyclopharm’s (ASX: CYC) Technegas technology could be effective in the early detection of lung disease, often caused by cigarette smoke, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a Canadian study has found.
Researchers from McMaster University and the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St Joseph’s Healthcare in Ontario, Canada demonstrated that Technegas detected changes in lung ventilation and perfusion before structural changes in the lungs were detected by CT scans.
Technegas is a gas that patients inhale prior to imaging and until now has been primarily used to diagnose pulmonary embolism, or blood clots in the lungs.
Cyclopharm has been developing new indications for Technegas including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – a condition that affects about one in five Australians over 40 years old and often causes breathlessness.
The Canadian study concluded that lung ventilation and perfusion imaging utilising Technegas could detect early changes to the lung caused by cigarette smoke exposure, providing a non-invasive method of longitudinally studying lung dysfunction in preclinical models.
In the future, these measures could be applied clinically to study and diagnose the early stages of COPD.
Cyclopharm recently initiated a pilot clinical trial targeting the use of Technegas in COPD.
The study is designed to evaluate lung imaging in terms of morphological and functional changes in assessing COPD severity and developing a more effective algorithm to identify other diseases associated with COPD.
The 500-patient pilot trial will be conducted at five locations throughout China and is expected to be concluded in mid-2014.
Cyclopharm expects to recieve initial results from the trial in late 2013 which will provide an indication of the effectiveness of Technegas in COPD diagnosis, and consequently the potential market size to the company.
While there is no cure for COPD, there is strong medical evidence to show that early diagnosis, combined with disease management programs in the early stages of the disease could reduce the burden of COPD by improving quality of life, slowing disease progression, reducing mortality and keeping people out of hospital.
If the Technegas clinical trial results demonstrate the ability to detect COPD earlier than existing methods, Technegas could be used as a key element in not only diagnosis but in the management of the disease.
Key market
China is a key market for Cyclopharm, with the company witnessing significant growth in Technegas sales in 2012 and the upward trajectory continuing in 2013.
In China, respiratory diseases including COPD are among the leading causes of death.
It is predicted that the nation will see 65 million deaths from COPD and 18 million deaths from lung cancer between 2003 and 2033 driven in a large part from smoking and biomass burning at home.
Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX “Small and Mid-cap” stocks with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.