Chiesi Pharmaceuticals Limited (“Chiesi”), an international research-focused Healthcare group, and Molecular Warehouse Ltd (“MW”), an innovative start up company developing mobile-enabled medical diagnostics, today announced the start of a collaboration to jointly develop a diagnostic system to enable transplant patients to remotely monitor their immunosuppressant levels.
Transplant patients receiving a graft from a donor need to take immunosuppressant drugs, such as Envarsus® (tacrolimus prolonged release) to prevent organ rejection. However, the levels of these drugs in the patient’s bloodstream need to be carefully monitored to maintain the drug concentration in a range that lowers the reactivity of the immune system enough to avoid rejection, but at the same time does not expose the patient to an increased risk of opportunistic infections.
Currently patients have to visit a hospital or specialised clinic regularly to undertake a blood test for immunosuppressants, which negatively impacts the patient’s quality of life and puts further pressure on the healthcare system’s resources. The goal of the R&D collaboration between Chiesi and MW is to develop a system that will enable patients to self-test at home, using an easy to use finger-prick blood test which is connected to their smartphone. The test results will be automatically communicated with their specialist, so patients can be remotely monitored to ensure that the drug they are taking is within the desired range.
“We are really pleased to be supporting the development of breakthrough innovations that can significantly improve transplant patients’ quality of life”, said Ugo Di Francesco, Chief Executive Officer of Chiesi. “Our immunosuppressant drug, Envarsus®, is based on a proprietary technological platform enabling an improved pharmacokinetic profile and a once daily formulation which has been demonstrated to improve the ease of taking medication for transplant patients. Nevertheless, the need to visit the clinic regularly to ensure drug levels are optimal still remains a considerable burden on patients’ and doctors’ time. We believe MW’s innovative diagnostic system could reduce the impact of this necessary inconvenience for the patients and their doctors, while enabling even more frequent monitoring of drug levels, potentially improving patient care. This partnership is a perfect example of our Company strategy to combine digital innovation, disease management and patient care with therapeutic options.”
Tom Delahoyde, Managing Director of Chiesi Ltd in the UK, said, “The prospect of being able to conveniently and effectively maintain optimal immunosuppressant levels for transplantation patients is great news for clinicians and patients alike. Such an innovative diagnostic tool could help us to minimise healthcare costs whilst supporting the unmet needs of transplantation patients in the UK. We look forward to bringing an innovative and breakthrough monitoring system to UK patients in the near future.”
“We are very excited to have found in Chiesi a partner with the vision, innovative mind-set, and deep understanding of the needs of transplantation patients and physicians, to work with us developing our diagnostic platform”, said Dr Siro Perez, Chief Executive Officer of MW. “The remote monitoring of immunosuppressants is technically a very complex problem, and we are applying cutting edge technologies from the fields of electronics, synthetic biology, and software to develop this diagnostic test. Having the support of Chiesi allows us to have the best chance in bringing this breakthrough innovation to patients and clinicians as soon as possible.”
About Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A: Headquartered in Parma, Italy, Chiesi Farmaceutici is an international research-focused Healthcare group, with over 80 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Chiesi researches, develops and markets innovative drugs in the respiratory therapeutics, specialist medicine and rare diseases areas. Its R&D organization is headquartered in Parma (Italy), and integrated with other 6 key R&D groups in France, USA, UK, Sweden and Denmark to advance Chiesi’s pre-clinical, clinical and registration programs. Chiesi employs over 4,500 people, 560 of whom are solely dedicated to R&D activities. For more information, please visit www.chiesi.com.
About Molecular Warehouse Ltd: Molecular Warehouse (MW) is an innovative startup company developing a mobile-enabled medical diagnostic platform. MW’s vision is creating a world where most diseases are prevented, by giving people the power of molecular diagnostics. MW’s system allows people to perform molecular diagnostic tests on their smartphone rapidly and cheaply, anywhere, anytime. MW has R&D activities in Guildford, UK, and Brisbane, Australia. For more information please visit www.molecularwarehouse.com.