Diadem Partners with Dementias Platform UK to Advance Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

— Joins Public Private Partnership Building Integrated, Collaborative Initiatives to Better Understand, Diagnose and Treat Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias—

— Diadem's Blood-based Prognostic Test Identifies with High Accuracy Whether Individuals with Mild Cognitive Symptoms Will Progress to Alzheimer's Disease Up to Six Years Before Diagnosis—

MILAN, June 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Diadem SpA, a company developing AlzoSure® Predict, the first blood-based test for the early prediction of progression to Alzheimer's disease (AD), today announced that is has joined Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) as a corporate partner.

DPUK is a public private partnership funded by the UK Medical Research Council to facilitate and accelerate the discovery of new ways to understand, diagnose, and treat dementia. It offers facilitated access to detailed information on more than three million individuals from 50 long-term health cohort studies. By assembling data from these studies, DPUK provides an integrated and collaborative environment, bringing together scientists from research institutions and industry to share knowledge and conduct joint research, while establishing new ways of working with academia, industry, regulators, health care providers, patients and the public.

"New tools such as Diadem's prognostic blood test for Alzheimer's disease that aim to identify high risk individuals early in the disease process are essential to efforts to dramatically improve the management of dementia," said Vanessa Raymont, DPUK Associate Director. "We welcome Diadem as a DPUK corporate partner and look forward to working together to further investigate the utility of its AlzoSure Predict test to facilitate our efforts in dementia experimental medicine, and ultimately, to help improve the patient journey and patient outcomes."

"We welcome the opportunity to join this unique network of research institutions and healthcare companies working together to transform the diagnosis and treatment of dementia," said Paul Kinnon, Chief Executive Officer of Diadem. "Clinical studies confirm that our AlzoSure Predict blood test can accurately identify whether or not people with early signs of cognitive impairment will progress to Alzheimer's disease up to six years before diagnosis, and it can distinguish the individual's stage of decline. This makes it a potentially valuable tool for organizations conducting dementia research and developing new therapies. In turn, we expect to benefit from access to the exceptional patient databases and portals and related resources DPUK and its members have assembled, enabling us to further validate and extend the diagnostic utility of our proprietary biomarker technology."

AlzoSure Predict is a non-invasive biomarker blood test that can identify with high accuracy whether individuals over the age of 50 with signs of cognitive impairment will or will not progress to Alzheimer's dementia up to six years before diagnosis. Its utility is supported by clinical data from a large longitudinal study that was the basis for AlzoSure Predict's recent CE-IVD marking in the E.U., and its Breakthrough Device designation from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. The company's technology uses an analytical method that includes a patented antibody developed by Diadem and designed to bind to U-p53^AZ and its target sequences. U-p53^AZ is a conformational variant of the p53 protein that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of AD in multiple studies.

There are about 50 million people suffering from dementia worldwide. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form and accounts for 60-70% of cases. At present there are no disease modifying treatments for Alzheimer's, and therapies to treat symptoms are limited. There are about 10 million new cases per year, and the incidence is rising rapidly as the population ages. The current total cost of care is enormous--estimated at $1 trillion in the U.S. annually and expected to double by 2030. Currently, diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is slow, inconclusive, invasive and expensive. Development of effective therapies for Alzheimer's has been hindered by the lack of accurate and cost-effective prognostic and diagnostic methods.

Funded primarily by the Medical Research Council (MRC), DPUK is a public-private partnership based at the University of Oxford with active sites across the UK. DPUK bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries in the lab and successful trials of new treatments. Our work is focused on three main areas: The use of wide-ranging health research data from long-term studies of individuals to generate new insights into dementia (including dementia risk and the early signs of disease); a programme of experimental medicine to plug gaps in our knowledge of the diseases that cause dementia and to lay the groundwork for more efficient drug trials; and matching public volunteers to the most appropriate research studies and trials based on their individual characteristics. Taken together, and by uniting expertise from academia and private industry in a 'pre-competitive' environment, these activities are accelerating dementia research and giving us a better chance of developing effective treatments and prevention strategies within the next few years.

Diadem was founded as a spin-out of the University of Brescia (Italy). The company is developing the first blood-based prognostic test for the early detection of dementia, with a focus on Alzheimer's disease. The lack of accurate, accessible and affordable diagnostic tools is a major contributor to the absence of effective treatments for this devastating condition. As a result, patients are not diagnosed until late in the illness, when effective treatment is no longer possible. Diadem's rapid, accurate and cost-effective blood-based prognostic test makes it possible for the first time to identify patients early in the disease process, when effective interventions and better outcomes are far more feasible. The utility of the approach has been demonstrated in longitudinal clinical studies that were the basis for awarding CE-IVD marking in the E.U. and a Breakthrough Device designation in the U.S. Additional retrospective and prospective clinical trials are ongoing to further validate clinical claims and support widespread adoption and use. Diadem is preparing for commercialisation of AlzoSure® Predict in collaboration with global strategic partners. The company is also developing AlzoSure^® Confirm, a blood-based diagnostic test for AD that has shown promising results in early studies. For more information, visit diademdx.com/.

Corporate:                                                      Media:
Diadem                                                            Barbara Lindheim :
Paul Kinnon                                                     BLL Partners for Diadem                                    
CEO                                                                 [email protected]                                                                                             [email protected]                           +1 (917) 355-9234         

SOURCE Diadem SpA