Oncimmune Holdings PLC (LON:ONC) said it landed two substantial new contracts for an infectious disease panel that helps predict the severity of Coronavirus (COVID-19) along with the potential effectiveness of vaccines and other drugs used to treat it.
The agreements are with drug giant Roche Pharmaceuticals and the world-famous Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The technology was developed with UK government backing and is based around Oncimmune’s SeroTag system.
For Roche, the panel will be used to profile antibody and autoantibody responses in patient samples from the Roche COVACTA trial to look for immune signals of response, non-response and adverse events.
The study was set up to evaluate the safety and efficacy of arthritis drug tocilizumab in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.
The contract also includes an option to extend to IgA and IgM antibody profiling, which would substantially increase the value of the contract, Oncimmune said.
Cedars-Sinai, in Los Angeles, has agreed to expand its COVID-19 collaboration with the UK group “to study a unique cohort of patients”.
“Today's announcement is further validation of the importance of our infectious disease panel in supporting both clinical research and the development of vaccines and therapeutics,” said chief executive, Dr Adam Hill.
“We are also experiencing substantial interest in our immuno-oncology and autoimmune activities, which together with our infectious disease offering, provides us with confidence in the continued growth of ImmunoINSIGHTS."