Evogen and UCB Announce Collaboration for Further Development of EvoScore™ START for Improved Diagnosis of Epilepsy

Monday, December 05, 2016

Evogen, Inc., a leader in proteomics and genomics-based testing for improved diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders, and UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company with more than 20 years of experience in the research and development of anti-epileptic drugs, today announced a collaboration for further development of EvoScore™ START, Evogen's new proteomics-based blood test designed to accurately distinguish epileptic seizures from other events.

The accurate diagnosis of epilepsy seizures remains a challenge to physicians and patients. Current diagnostic tools can be cumbersome, expensive and may have sub-optimal accuracy. The considerable time and cost of current diagnostic methods could pose a burden to patients and healthcare systems, and may also result in treatment delays for some epilepsy patients and inappropriate treatment for others.

The EvoScore START test is a new approach to the diagnosis of epileptic seizures. It analyzes the ratio and concentration of key protein biomarkers in a simple blood test format to determine whether an event was actually a seizure, with sensitivity and specificity of 90% or more. It is estimated that only about 15% of suspected seizure-like events are actual epileptic seizures, yet there are no easily available tools that can definitively distinguish a seizure from another event.

"Evogen aims to be the leader in neurology proteomic and genomic testing, and we believe that EvoScore START has the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis of epilepsy," said Todd Wallach, president and chief executive officer of Evogen. "We are accordingly thrilled to work with epilepsy leader UCB to conduct further development of this innovative biomarker-based blood test. We have always admired UCB's long-standing commitment to the epilepsy field and look forward to UCB's expert help in further refining this important new diagnostic tool for epilepsy patients and their healthcare providers."

"UCB is excited about the potential of better diagnostic tests to improve individual experiences for people with epilepsy," explained Jeff Wren, Head of UCB's Neurology Patient Value Unit. "We believe the availability of more accurate and accessible diagnostics, like EvoScore START, may improve time to care for epilepsy patients and could deliver additional value across the broader healthcare system."

Further details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Peter Crino, MD, PhD, is currently chair of the department of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His former laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine conducted key studies of EvoScore START. Dr. Crino added, "Epilepsy is a potentially devastating disease that affects about 65 million patients worldwide, yet diagnosis is too often imprecise and difficult. Our studies show that Evogen's biomarker-based proteomics blood test has the potential to provide clinicians with an accurate and accessible new tool to distinguish true epileptic seizures from the many events that mimic seizures but are in fact attributable to other causes."

Evogen has two poster presentations relevant to EvoScore START at the 2016 AES Annual Meeting:

1 – AES Poster 3.089
Predictive Blood Test for Seizures: Post-hoc Assessment of Plasma Biomarkers
Dec. 5, 2016; 8:00-10:00am

2 – AES Poster 3.156
EEG Has Some Diagnostic Value in a Third of New Patients Who Present to an Epilepsy Center: A Prospective Study
Dec. 5, 2016; 8:00-10:00am

Evogen representatives will be available to discuss EvoScore START and Evogen's neurology genomic tests during the 2016 AES meeting at Booth #341.

 

Source:prnewswire.com