{mosimage}A device that can diagnose schizophrenia from a simple blood test could be available within the year following a deal struck between Cambridge University spin-out, Psynova Neurotech, and Texan biomarker expert, Rules-Based Medicine (RBM).

Psynova plans to push the diagnostic test out as a research tool for scientists investigating schizophrenia before hitting a wider market with a clinically approved product with the potential to transform treatment for sufferers.

A second tranche of funding received earlier this year means Psynova can also begin to progress work based on its patented technology on other neuropsychiatric illnesses including bipolar disorder (manic depression) and eventually the much more common, major, or clinical, depression.

Under the terms of the RBM agreement, the two companies will collaborate on the validation, regulatory approval and manufacture of a diagnostic blood test for schizophrenia that will then be sold exclusively on a worldwide basis by RBM.

The deal incorporates the candidate biomarkers already identified by Psynova from its unique BioBank and makes use of RBM’s comprehensive protein biomarker assay and technology platform to accelerate the delivery of an objective diagnostic blood test for the benefit of schizophrenic patients.

Psynova will receive payment from RBM and the two will share any revenues generated by the diagnostic tool, which they hope to have ready in the next 12 to 18 months.

Psynova’s biomarkers were discovered through its collaborative research programme with company co-founder and head of the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research (CCNR) at Cambridge University’s Institute of Biotechnology, Dr Sabine Bahn, who developed a BioBank of post mortem brain and other tissue samples.

“RBM’s technology platform and clinical screening expertise give us a rapid path to bring the candidate biomarkers identified through our research efforts to the benefit of patients,” said Dr Bahn.

Launching the test as a research tool would not only help generate early revenues for the firm, but would help Psynova compile a dossier of evidence it could use in its effort to obtain regulatory approval, hopefully within the next three to five years.

“The Psynova biomarkers not only have the potential to help in the identification of disease subtypes, but also in deciding the best treatment options, monitoring patient responses and facilitating novel approaches to drug discovery,” said Dr Bahn.

Schizophrenia affects approximately 1 per cent of the population and accounts for a quarter of all mental health costs. Its direct costs are estimated to total £26 billion per annum in Europe and indirect costs are thought to make up at least 50 per cent of the total cost of the disease.

Diagnosis of schizophrenia is currently highly subjective and time-consuming and lacks objective biological tests specific for the disease, which leads to delayed treatment.

Studies have also shown that a test providing earlier and more accurate diagnosis of the disease would not only deliver improved patient outcomes, but also greatly reduce the overall costs of schizophrenia to health services and society.

Having received a second tranche of funding from its existing investors, Cambridge Enterprise and Porton Capital, earlier in the year, non-executive director at Psynova, Paul Rodgers, says the firm should have enough money to take it through to product launch.

Financial backing has so far come from Cambridge Enterprise and Porton Capital who pledged £2.25m in a funding round exclusively revealed by Business Weekly at the beginning of 2006 and the latest cash injection is a part of this. Rodgers expects to seek new money within the year, though how much and when is dependent on the progress of the work with RBM.

RBM itself is keen to engage in further collaborations of this kind with Psynova and the Texan company’s CEO, T. Craig Benson, shares Rodgers’ belief  that the two have highly complementary technologies.

“Complex diseases like schizophrenia are an ideal fit for RBM’s multiplex testing approach,” said Benson. “We anticipate that this is the first of many collaborations between the two companies, further leveraging other discoveries made by Psynova and the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research.”