Paris (France), April 10, 2009 – Biocortech announced that the company has received a favorable notification from Comité de Protection des Personnes (CPP, an ethical research committee whose approval is mandatory to begin clinical trials) for starting a proof of concept clinical trial, to validate a biological test of depression.
The blood test was designed by Biocortech on the basis of a recently discovered mechanism – so called “receptor editing” – whose effect on specific cell receptors have been correlated to depression disorders / suicidal behavior. Enrolled patients are hepatitis C infected and will be treated for the first time with pegylated interferon a and ribavirin, known to cause depression and mood changes. The clinical trial will be conducted at the Nouvel Hôpital Civil de Strasbourg, France, in collaboration with Professor M. Doffoel (hepatologist, Pôle de Référence Alsace Hépatites Virales), Dr JP Lang (psychiatrist) and Dr C.Brandt (CIC, Inserm, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg) who have a very high recruitment of patients. The aim of the study is to compare clinically assessed alterations of mood, using the more recent state of the art recommendations, with levels of blood biomarkers related to receptor editing. The study will consist in dosing blood circulating markers and in clinically assessing patient depression in parallel, before and during treatment, over a four month period, each patient being his own control.
“Such a biological test of depression is a long-awaited possibility for the community of hepatologists and psychiatrists, to better diagnose and monitor mood disorders and thus to personalize medical management of depression in hepatitis C infected patients treated with interferon a.” said the future investigators. Dinah Weissmann, Chief Executive Officer of Biocortech commented: “We are very pleased to see Biocortech’s test entering clinical development. This is a major step into starting to assess the full clinical and therapeutic potential of the test whose scope of applications is potentially very large.”
About Biocortech Biocortech is a biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery and development of novel biomarkers and treatments for psychiatric disorders such as depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia and cognitive deficits. Biocortech’s proprietary technologies and assays enable the identification of biomarkers to be used to optimize drug candidates, with respect to safety at the level of the central nervous system, and to diagnose and monitor treatments in clinical setting. Biocortech is based in Paris, France. www.biocortech.com
Dinah Weissmann, CEO Biocortech dweissmann@biocortech.com +33 44 97 79 80
