TGen and ABL Continue Global Deployment of Advanced Tuberculosis Screening

To achieve a milestone in the eradication of tuberculosis (TB), the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), a member of the City of Hope Group, has signed a licensing agreement with an international biomedical company, Advanced Biological Laboratories (ABL), for the purpose of marketing and distributing the product. patented tuberculosis test technology based on next-generation sequencing.

For now, the test called DeepChek-TB is only available for research. ABL is working on distributing a compact, portable and affordable diagnostic model that doctors around the world could use to help determine the most appropriate treatment for each patient with TB.

Current tests can take between 6 and 9 weeks. The DeepChek-TB test can be completed in just 2-3 days and can identify drug-resistant TB among mixed infections.

Thanks to modern medicine, tuberculosis in the United States continues to pose a relatively minor threat. Globally, however, nearly one-quarter of the world's population is infected with this communicable, lung-damaging disease, which is estimated to kill more than 4,300 people a day, or nearly three per minute. , in the world.

"Significantly, our TB dosing technology has the potential to provide physicians – even those living in relatively rural areas – with a quick and cost-effective way to accurately determine the exact drugs that can be used or not for each patient, "said Dr. David Engelthaler. , Co-director of TGen's pathogen and microbiome division.

Tuberculosis remains a major threat to public health in developing countries and is increasing in some places as mutant versions of this infectious lung disease become resistant to current drug treatments. Identifying drug-fast and drug-resistant TB strains is the biggest challenge to eradicate this disease.

ABL, based in Luxembourg, is one of the leading manufacturers of diagnostic solutions and medical technologies. Its licensing agreement with TGen will allow ABL to distribute DeepChek-TB through its global network of clinicians and distributors in more than 80 countries.

"We look forward to immediately making the DeepChek-TB test available to our global network and expect a strong demand for this test from leading research facilities around the world," said Dr. Chalom. Sayada, founder and CEO of ABL.

As part of the UNITAID TB strategy of the World Health Organization (WHO), the DeepChek-TB test could help achieve the goal of a 95% reduction deaths due to tuberculosis and 90% of new cases by 2035.

In the United States, more than 9,000 TB cases are diagnosed each year, a reduction of over 80% from 50 years ago. However, current drug-resistant tuberculosis is a heavy burden on the health system, costing an average of more than $ 500,000 to treat each of the most resistant patients.

"This is a precision medical test, that is, designed to provide treatment-specific information to each patient," Dr. Engelthaler said. "Drug resistance occurs when the wrong antibiotics are prescribed at the wrong time.This new approach aims not only to help doctors better treat patients, but also to slow down or stop the global threat Mycobacterium tuberculosis multi-resistant."

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Provided by
Translational Genomics Research Institute