Sengenics seeks strategic partners to advance autoantibody-based diagnostics and therapeutics
- Leveraging its core technology, Sengenics has created Symphoni, the largest database of human autoantibody profiles across multiple ethnicities
Autoantibodies are critical for the early diagnosis and improved treatment of chronic diseases and could someday generate therapeutic biomolecules for multiple diseases. While representing excellent biomarkers for stratifying patients into responders, non-responders and those exhibiting immune-related adverse events, autoantibodies also inform strategic decision-making towards raising drug development success rates, efficacy and safety.
Headquartered in Singapore, Sengenics is fast realising the therapeutic potential of autoantibodies. Since commercialising a technology developed at the University of Cambridge in the early 2000s, the company has been collaborating with top global pharmaceutical players on drug companion diagnostics and autoantibody biomarker discovery.
“Our technology is fundamentally unique,” says Professor Jonathan Blackburn, chief scientific officer. “We’ve had great adoption by big pharmaceutical companies in the United States and Europe, which have validated the exceptional reproducibility and sensitivity of the KREX platform.”
A proteomics technology addressing prevalent poor response rates to autoimmune and cancer drugs, KREX has proven valuable to big pharma through its success in stratifying drug responders and predicting toxicity.
Leveraging its core technology, Sengenics has created Symphoni, the largest database of human autoantibody profiles across multiple ethnicities. This year, the company is extending its iTAP Technology Access Program and launching a novel p53 clinical variant microarray for cancer drug discovery and screening. It is also taking its advanced technology directly to consumers through the autoantibody test SeroMax, which sidesteps the need for blood sample preparation and refrigeration.
Active in 31 collaborations across the US, Europe and Singapore, Sengenics is expanding into Japan, South Korea and China through new partnerships, while eyeing prospects in India and Australia. It welcomes collaborations with research institutes, companies having complementary capabilities and governments to pursue research and development and investment opportunities.
“Our strategy is to bring the output of KREX research directly to patients, leading to either earlier diagnosis of life-threatening conditions or delivering the vision of precision medicine for autoimmune and cancer drugs,” says Dr Arif Anwar, CEO.
