BARD1 leverages ProcartaPlex technology to accelerate development of ovarian cancer detection

Australian biotech company BARD1 Life Sciences (ASX: BD1) has entered into an assay development agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific for custom research assay development of a multiplex autoantibody test system aimed at better detection of ovarian cancer.

According to BARD1, the agreement defines the development of a multiplex immunoassay in kit format for the detection of autoantibodies against 20 BARD1 peptides using “ProcartaPlex technology for performance on Luminex instrumentation for BARD1’s research and evaluation.”

The news effectively means that BARD1 could enter its ovarian cancer detection technology into clinical testing as soon as early 2019.

BARD1 is currently developing non-invasive cancer diagnostics to help doctors detect cancer of various types more effectively compared to current methods.

The company’s proprietary technology platform is based on novel tumour markers with potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications across multiple cancers.

The development pipeline includes two BARD1 autoantibody tests in early development for early detection of lung and ovarian cancers and a cancer vaccine project currently at the research stage.

Additional diagnostic projects are being evaluated for prostate, breast and other cancers.

BARD1 said that the custom research assay development project will commence this month and is expected to take approximately nine months, with deliverables such as an assay feasibility report, development report, and associated standard operating procedures expected to be published next year.

The company said that if the development project is successful, BARD1 and Thermo Fisher will discuss the potential for Thermo Fisher to supply research autoantibody kits to BARD1 for its use in research studies.

“We are pleased to work with such an experienced partner. The development of a RUO BARD1 autoantibody assay for use on Luminex instrumentation will be an important milestone for the company, enabling us to initiate clinical testing to evaluate the accuracy of the new multiplex BARD1-Ovarian test for early detection of ovarian cancer in early 2019,” said Dr Leearne Hinch, CEO of BARD1 Life Sciences.