Progenika Biopharma Launches New IBD Prognosis Test

The international launch of a new assay to improve the quality of lives of patients with Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis developed by Progenika, has taken place in Derio (Vizcaya). The IBDchip offers high precision in the prognosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and allows individual treatment for patients.

A biochip or DNA-chip simply requires a tiny blood sample from the patient. The DNA-chip permits prediction of the evolution and prognosis of the disease as well as selection of the most adequate treatment for each individual.

There are more than 100,000 people affected with IBD in Spain, and in 2004, treatment costs of these pathologies amounted to 7,382 Euros per patient, which brings the annual public health cost near to millions of Euros annually.

Progenika Biopharma has presented the IBDchip (Inflammatory Bowel Disease DNA Chip). This DNA-chip enables an improvement of prognostic and therapeutic management of those patients with IBD.

The DNA-chip was developed in collaboration with Miquel Sans, MD, member of the gastroenterology service of the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and Carlos Cara, MD, of UCB Pharma. A multicenter study carried out on more than 500 patients guarantees the precision of this discovery.

At present, the IBD chip analyses 61 polymorphisms related to IBD. The DNA-chip includes the polymorphisms that until now have been associated with the disease only in scientific reading, the tendency to suffer from it and its possible course, but it is already an open tool, and as new related mutations are identified, they can be incorporated into the IBDchip for their analysis.

Miquel Sans explains, "From a small blood sample, the patient’s DNA is obtained, which is then placed on a glass support, prepared to detect 61 mutations when analyzed using laser technology."

IBD includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two disorders that occur in both adults and children.

The disease has an important genetic component; at least 15 percent of patients have one relative affected by IBD. It is estimated that there are about 10 or 15 new cases of IBD per 100,000 habitants each year, and that more than 100,000 people are affected in Spain.

Multicenter Study and Main Beneficiaries
A multicenter study, carried out on 579 patients –- 335 affected with Crohn’s disease and 244 by ulcerative colitis -- in The Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, The Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, The Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela and The Hospital Clínico Gonzalo Blesa de Zaragoza, guarantees the precision of the IBD chip.

The new discovery, as Miquel Sans points out, "offers high levels of precision in the location and extent of Crohn’s disease, the risk of suffering from perianal, fistule or abscess illness, the possible need for surgery or the probabilities of having associated extra-intestinal signs (skin, joints or sight)."

In the case of ulcerative colitis, the expert assures that the IBDchip offers "high levels of precision when determining the extent of the damage, the need for a colectomy as well as the probabilities of having extra-intestinal signs". He also states, "All this permits individualized treatment for patients."

Progenika Biopharma
Progenika Biopharma is a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of DNA-chips to diagnose diseases through the knowledge of the human genome.

Source: Progenika Biopharma

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