Clinical Trial Progress Supports 2025 Launch of First-of-Its-Kind Blood-Based Test
HAYWARD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aqtual, Inc., a precision medicine company using its novel active chromatin cell-free DNA platform to develop products for chronic diseases and oncology, today announced the presentation of new data supporting its innovative blood-based test for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy selection. Presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Convergence 2024, the data highlights significant clinical trial progress and reinforces the company’s plans to commercialize the test in 2025.
The first poster demonstrates proof-of-concept data that Aqtual’s therapy selection test can predict treatment response in patients with RA. The second poster provides an interim analysis from PRIMA-102, Aqtual’s prospective observational clinical trial that has enrolled more than 1000 patients to date, with more than 500 patients having completed the study follow-up period.
“PRIMA-102 represents a significant step toward personalized treatment strategies for RA patients experiencing inadequate response or intolerance to current disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapies,” said Gordon K. Lam, M.D., F.A.C.R., Arthritis & Osteoporosis Consultants of the Carolinas. “The study has enrolled an impressive number of patients from across the U.S., representing a diverse range of treatment histories, making its results broadly applicable to real-world patient populations.”
Many patients with RA try at least two or three different therapies before finding one that works for them.1 It is estimated that annual healthcare costs of RA patients in the United States total more than $19B, not including intangible costs like quality of life, premature mortality, and societal costs.2
“The PRIMA-102 data we are sharing today supports our 2025 plan to deliver the first RA therapy selection test that provides a positive prediction of drug-class specific therapy response for both biologic and targeted synthetic DMARDs,” said Diana Abdueva, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Aqtual. “By providing information on the likelihood of response to the TNFi, anti-T cell and JAKi drug classes, we will empower clinicians to improve outcomes for their patients and the health system as a whole.”
Posters are available on the Aqtual website:
- A Novel Blood-based Assay That Predicts Clinical Response to TNFα Inhibitors or Janus Kinase Inhibitors in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Development of a Blood-based Cell-free DNA Classifier Assay to Predict Biologic and Targeted Synthetic DMARDs Response in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients (PRIMA-102)
About Aqtual, Inc.
Aqtual, Inc. is a precision medicine company developing products for chronic disease management and oncology utilizing a novel cell-free DNA-based platform. Aqtual’s proprietary platform evaluates protein regulation, epigenetics, and transcriptomics solely using cell-free DNA fragments found in the blood. The platform yields efficient and robust real-time analysis of disease and treatment while overcoming the limitations of previous cell-free DNA methodologies.
1 Lauper K, Iudici M, Mongin D, Bergstra SA, Choquette D, Codreanu C, Cordtz R, De Cock D, Dreyer L, Elkayam O, Hauge EM, Huschek D, Hyrich KL, Iannone F, Inanc N, Kearsley-Fleet L, Kristianslund EK, Kvien TK, Leeb BF, Lukina G, Nordström DC, Pavelka K, Pombo-Suarez M, Rotar Z, Santos MJ, Strangfeld A, Verschueren P, Courvoisier DS, Finckh A. Effectiveness of TNF-inhibitors, abatacept, IL6-inhibitors and JAK-inhibitors in 31 846 patients with rheumatoid arthritis in 19 registers from the ‘JAK-pot’ collaboration. Ann Rheum Dis. 2022 Oct;81(10):1358-1366. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2022-222586. Epub 2022 Jun 15. PMID: 35705376; PMCID: PMC9484385.
2 Birnbaum H, Pike C, Kaufman R, Marynchenko M, Kidolezi Y, Cifaldi M. Societal cost of rheumatoid arthritis patients in the US. Curr Med Res Opin. 2010 Jan;26(1):77-90. doi: 10.1185/03007990903422307. PMID: 19908947
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