Lophius Biosciences GmbH today announced that it has been awarded a public grant funding of 0.65 MEUR from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to develop a blood based diagnostic test for the rapid and efficient diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). The test will be based on Lophius’ proprietary Reverse T Cell Technology (RTT) enabling the differential diagnosis of latent infection from active disease, which requires immediate treatment. Lophius Biosciences is a privately held biotech company focusing on the development and marketing of innovative T cell-based diagnostic systems to improve therapy control and personalized treatment of patients in the area of transplantation, infectious and autoimmune diseases.
There are more than 10 million new TB incidences per year and 1.4 million associated deaths. This places TB among the top 10 causes of death worldwide, despite most cases being curable. In total, 1.7 billion people are estimated to be latently infected globally. Although over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle income countries, TB incident rates are climbing in industrialized countries in recent years. This is largely due to increasing mobility and the rise of multi-resistant bacterial strains. Currently, reliable diagnosis of active TB is complex, laborious and thus time-consuming by combining a number of different diagnostic methods like X-ray, sputum microscopy, sputum culture, sputum PCR and IFN-γ release assays.
Based on its proprietary RTT platform Lophius aims to develop a test with the potential to significantly simplify and accelerate the current workflow of TB diagnosis by enabling an efficient differentiation of patients with active TB from latently infected and healthy individuals with a single, easy to use blood-based test. “The assignment of this grant in a competitive process confirms the high unmet needs in the TB market and underlines the potential of our technology. It will help us to broaden and accelerate our development activities”, commented Bernd Merkl, CEO & Managing Director of Lophius Biosciences GmbH.
There are more than 10 million new TB incidences per year and 1.4 million associated deaths. This places TB among the top 10 causes of death worldwide, despite most cases being curable. In total, 1.7 billion people are estimated to be latently infected globally. Although over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle income countries, TB incident rates are climbing in industrialized countries in recent years. This is largely due to increasing mobility and the rise of multi-resistant bacterial strains. Currently, reliable diagnosis of active TB is complex, laborious and thus time-consuming by combining a number of different diagnostic methods like X-ray, sputum microscopy, sputum culture, sputum PCR and IFN-γ release assays.
Based on its proprietary RTT platform Lophius aims to develop a test with the potential to significantly simplify and accelerate the current workflow of TB diagnosis by enabling an efficient differentiation of patients with active TB from latently infected and healthy individuals with a single, easy to use blood-based test. “The assignment of this grant in a competitive process confirms the high unmet needs in the TB market and underlines the potential of our technology. It will help us to broaden and accelerate our development activities”, commented Bernd Merkl, CEO & Managing Director of Lophius Biosciences GmbH.
