CARLSBAD, Calif. and ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Dec. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Prescient Medicine Holdings, Inc. and the Department of Clinical Chemistry at Erasmus MC (CC-EMC), Rotterdam today announced a partnership for CC-EMC to study opioid addiction risk in The Netherlands. The partnership will center on Prescient Medicine's novel genetic testing technology designed to objectively assess an individual's risk of opioid addiction prior to opioid exposure. The clinical research will be conducted with patients in The Netherlands to confirm that the positive results from research completed in the United States are also found in the Dutch health care system.
According to a 2019 study, the overall number of prescription opioid users in the Netherlands has nearly doubled between 2008 and 2017, and the number of opioid-related hospital admissions has tripled.
"We have seen the devastation of opioid addiction in the United States, and we are worried that we are on a similar path in the Netherlands, given the increased rates of opioid use and addiction," said Professor Ron HN Van Schaik, Ph.D., Erasmus MC. "Evaluating the potential of Prescient Medicine's diagnostic technology is an important step in future efforts aimed to help address and minimize opioid addiction in The Netherlands. A test like this would give clinicians a tool to proactively determine the risk of opioid addiction for an individual before they are prescribed a medication. This will enable prescribers to make a choice which drug would serve their patients' needs best."
The genetic panel leverages the power of machine learning to assess a patient's genetic risk of opioid addiction. The test received Breakthrough Device Designation from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States in February 2018. The work done through this collaboration will be the first time the test has been researched outside of the United States.
"A test like this is valuable to anyone prescribing opioids, not just in the United States," said Keri Donaldson, M.D., medical director and CEO of Prescient Medicine. "We are excited to expand the use of this test to The Netherlands and potentially help play a part in helping combat the opioid crisis that may be developing in The Netherlands and throughout the world."
About Prescient Medicine Holdings, Inc.
Prescient Medicine is a privately held company focused on developing diagnostic tools that advance the precision healthcare movement. Prescient Medicine's mission is to accelerate the development, commercialization and deployment of advanced clinical diagnostics to address the most pressing public health issues in the U.S and around the world. Prescient Medicine builds powerful tests and analytic solutions to offer deep predictive insights so doctors and patients have the data they need to make better, more informed clinical decisions, and achieve the best possible patient outcomes. Prescient Medicine technologies include LifeKit® Predict, an in vitro diagnostic test commercialized in partnership with its subsidiary AutoGenomics, used for the identification of patients who may be at risk for opioid addiction and LifeKit® Prevent a diagnostic test designed to detect pre-cancerous polyps, as well as early-stage carcinomas. Prescient Medicine operates three CLIA-certified labs supporting ToxKit®, an advanced drug screening tool, and LifeKit®PreScript, an advanced pharmacogenomic test. Prescient has locations in California, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Kentucky.
About Department of Clinical Chemistry, Erasmus MC.
The Erasmus MC University Medical Center (Erasmus MC), an organization with 17,000 employees in 2019, is committed to a healthy population and excellence in healthcare through research and education. It excels in various research fields, studying fundamental and clinical domains as well as public health and prevention. Research at Erasmus MC is at the heart of society, resulting in innovation, quality improvement and more effectiveness in patient care. The overall research aim of Erasmus MC is to translate bench discoveries to bed-side applications. Bibliometric indicators place Erasmus MC in the top 20 of clinical medicine worldwide. In addition to scientific research, patient care and education are core tasks of Erasmus MC. The complete spectrum of medicine is offered, from disease to health and from individual to public healthcare. Erasmus MC is also the largest medical school in the Netherlands, with ~3,100 medical students and has approximately 250 PhD graduations per year. It offers BSc, MSc and PhD programs to train the next generation of medical practitioners and researchers. Its annual research budget amounts to €139.7 million. The impact of Erasmus MC on the Dutch economy is substantial: in 2012, it contributed €3.8 billion gross value added (GVA) to the Dutch economy and it indirectly supports 40,556 jobs.
The Department of Clinical Chemistry contains the International Federation for Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) Expert Center for Pharmacogenetics, led by Prof Ron HN van Schaik, investigating the translation of genetic information in guiding individualized drug therapy.