Micromedic Technologies Ltd. (TASE:MCTC) today announced that its has completed the first trial of its early-stage diabetes detection biomarker. The trial was conducted on 119 patients at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
The trial found that the company’s biomarker had a 95% accuracy rate in detecting patients suspected as pre-diabetic (immediate relatives of persons with Type 1 diabetes) on the basis of other diagnosis methods. The biomarker was 90% accurate in detecting new diabetics on the basis of unique antibodies in the patients’ blood. Another test designed to detect diabetics on the basis of markers in their blood was 70% accurate, compared with other diagnostic methods that were assumed to be 100% accurate.
The patients in the trial were divided into groups: pre-diabetics, new diabetics, and long-time diabetics. Healthy persons were used as a control group.
Micromedic purchased the commercial rights to the diabetes biomarker from BioRap Technologies Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Institute of Medical Sciences at the Technion Faculty of Medicine. Micromedic can now decide on one of two ways to pursue development: either register the biomarker for marketing independently through a regulator (usually the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)), or jointly develop it with a company that already has a license to develop tests. Either way, the company will have to conduct more and larger trials for the biomarker.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 17, 2007
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