AMT and Progenika collaborate to develop gene test for lipase deficiency

Collaboration

Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (AMT) and Progenika Biopharma have entered a development and commercialisation agreement for LPLchip, a diagnostic tool to rapidly diagnose patients with complete and partial lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD). AMT has developed Glybera as a gene therapy for patients with this disease.

In June of this year AMT announced new clinical data showing that a one-off administration of Glybera results in significant long-term health benefits for LPLD patients. Long-term follow-up data from two clinical trials with complete LPLD patients show that Glybera therapy results in a significant and clinically important reduction in acute pancreatitis, the most debilitating complication of the disease.

The data also confirm that the therapy is well-tolerated and safe. AMT intends to file Glybera for marketing approval with EMEA by the end of this year.

LPLchip, based on the Progenika’s DNA-chip technology, will be used to rapidly diagnose patients with complete and partial LPLD in order to identify patients that could benefit from Glybera.

Jörn Aldag, CEO of AMT, said, “We are delighted to work with Progenika on the development of the LPLchip, as the company brings a unique expertise that fits the diagnostic needs for LPLD. [This] will be an important tool in early patient diagnosis, enabling us to make Glybera available to the right patients as quickly as possible.”

Antonio Martínez, CEO of Progenika Biopharma, said, “This collaborative project demonstrates how DNA-based diagnostics and highly targeted gene therapy can be combined to bring personalised medicine to patient groups whose medical needs were previously unmet.”