NetScientific PLC's (LON:NSCI) saw its shares jump today on news its portfolio company ProAxsis has signed a clinical trial partnership with National Jewish Health, the US's leading respiratory hospital.
In late afternoon trading, Netscientific shares were 9.1%, or 4.5p at 54.0p.
ProAxsis will work with the hospital on validation of its ProteaseTag point-of-care technology in real-time management of a number of respiratory diseases including cystic fibrosis and COPD.
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Dr David Ribeiro, CEO of ProAxsis, said: "National Jewish Health is a globally recognised leader in respiratory care and research, so this agreement brings tremendous resources and expertise to our effort to bring the ProteaseTag technology to market in the US."
Francois Martelet, NetScientific’s chief executive ProAxsis’s chairman added: “The partnership brings tremendous resources and expertise and validates ProAxsis' technology as a potential industry leader for respiratory diagnostics.”
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On its website, ProAxsis says: "Active proteases are established therapeutic targets in treatments of high blood pressure, vascular disease and viral infections such as hepatitis C and HIV and are recognised as key biomarkers of several disease processes. There are however, no assay systems which can measure active proteases outside of academic research facilities,"
"Procedures are often complex requiring skilled personnel and expensive instrumentation, ProteaseTags rapidly provide a visual readout of active proteases in complex biological samples with a high level of specificity and selectivity "
NetScientific holds a 57% stake on a fully diluted basis in ProAxsis.
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