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Thanks Thompi,
I'm primarily interested in parasortix ability to enrich the tumor content in a sample so that the mutant allelic fraction might better be analyzed by PCR. This is where it has synergies with my other investment. Alot of the drugs are effective up until the cancer develops a resistance mutation. BCART is partnered to develope a rapid CDx for AZN's NSCLC drug Tagrisso. I think the end market is to have an oncologist take a blood sample in the office and determine whether the medication is still effective or whether mutations have developed which would require another course of treatment. If parasortix and Idylla were somehow partnered, it might be possible to get that answer in a day as opposed to the standard NGS turnaround of about 3 weeks. I'll take your advice and pose some of these questions to IR.
Regards FL
Hi FL,
That is quite a complex post and I will be honest & say some of it is too technical for me. For example, “ If your monitoring an existing cancer patient with a known mutation, can the Angle lab analyses be skipped and the ct rich sample used for input directly into a PCR or NGS analysis?” I can’t answer that question, but perhaps you could email Investor Relations? I have contacted them a few times now with research queries etc and they have answered promptly and helpfully.
I agree - “I think the key for Angle is to keep the price point where it becomes the hands down best option for obtaining biopsy samples for certain cancers.” I think FDA approval for MBC fits that criteria, to be probably followed, in due course by Ovarian cancer (study results due imminently) and then Prostate (collaboration with Solaris).
If you are not on them, the telegram board has knowledgable posters - for example Andrew Smith, and ADVFN - for example BermudaShorts. Although I think they both post on here too.
Good luck, hope you get answers to your questions.
Collecting a whole living tumor cell may have great utility for pharma cell therapy but I beleive their is also utility in molecular diagnostics (MDx). Parasortix can be useful on the front end in collecting a ct sample more easily than a biopsy. The analysis of this sample can then be used for a variety of purposes including companion diagnostics (CDx). That is why I believe that Qiagen was one of Angle's early partners. I think the key for Angle is to keep the price point where it becomes the hands down best option for obtaining biopsy samples for certain cancers. It seems that Angle is not fully into production mode. They have created a prototype manufacturing process that has not been fully scaled. Anyone on the board have a feeling about when they fully scale where parasortix pricing might be.
Also, I have questions on the lab portion of the analysis and the associated pricing. If parasortix harvests the circulating tumor, is the lab analysis similar to cytology using microscopy to identify the ct content. If your monitoring an existing cancer patient with a known mutation, can the angle lab analyses be skipped and the ct rich sample used for input directly into a PCR or NGS analysis?
FL
NGS is great for analyzing the whole genome and determining potential targets but once a specific molecular pathway is identified and under treatment, PCR can provide a more cost effective and timely means for monitoring for mutations that might render a specific drug ineffective. I beleive there are complimentary uses for the different technologied if the price points work out.
FL
Go take a tablet
F O S
Bojo.
Parsortix does not collect circulating dna fragments it does not need to. Why collect fragments when you can get the whole molecule which is infinitely more informative?
Moab, As I understand it, actually Parsortix does both. It captures both fragments of dead cells and whole intact living tumour cells. That doesn’t mean we should discount using other tests in combination with our own. Or that Parsortix should be used instead of others. Unique circumstances mean the clinician will likely decide?
Why use Parsortix to examine circulating tumour fragments, when you have the whole cell, DNA, RNA, the whole of the cell contents to work on? Or do I misunderstand your acronym heavy comments?
I think Angle might provide a good fit with BCART. Their Idylla platform primarily uses FFPE tumor samples but the cartridge system has been demonstrated to be effective analyzing ctEGFR, ct RAS, ctKRAS, ctBRAF. The cartridge and instrument do the necessary DNA extraction so the sample input may be a FFPE sample or a blood sample containing sufficient ct content. To date one of the cheif problems with Idylla is that it is not as sensitive as NGS (Oncobeam) to low mutant allelic fraction (MAF) in the blood sample (see article). This makes the Idylla analysis of samples <5% MAF less accurate than Oncobeam. However, Parasortix appears to provide a means to increase the MAF in the sample used for analysis. Correct me if I'm wrong.
LifeArk and BCART will launch a breast cancer assay in the near future (a month or two). Now that Parasortix is approved for breast cancer in the US I think they should evaluate the use of parasortix for monitoring breast cancer from ct content in blood samples. There seems to be a strong synergy here but the cost of breast cancer assay on top of parasortix harvesting of ct may be too high of a price point. If they develop a partnership, I can see application in NSCLC, etc. I've attached a few articles.
I recently bought a small Angle position on US pink sheets, painfully illiquid so my only way out might require Angle catching fire. Neither of my brokers Schwab or IBKR would allow purchase through their international trading platforms. Both of these positions are total speculations.
FL
but it is not as sensitive to low alliel
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/press-release-biocartis-group-nv-050000031.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-45616-y
https://www.oncotarget.com/article/21476/text/
A quick look confirms that the article does refer to circulating dna fragents, and not to CTCs
Flatlander, I couldn’t read your article (I don’t ‘log-in’) but what you write below confused me:
You are aware that ctDNA is not the same as intact CTCs ? I.E. Angle are not capturing circulating tumour DNA (fragments of dead rumour cells/dna) they are capturing living, whole circulating tumour cells. Different thing and potentially more useful in many ways.
https://www.genomeweb.com/scan/lung-cancer-response-checkpoint-inhibitors-reflected-circulating-tumor-dna#.YvqIV3bMIb4
I don't find this result surprising. As I indicated before, I can see a possible role for Parasortix in mutation monitoring. I think the same results found for checkpoint inhibutors will be found for other mutation drivers. Thus, ctDNA may well become the prefered method for patient disease monitoring. I think the cost of repeated NGS analyses would be prohibitive for most insurers/payers. A combination of Parasortix and PCR sequencing for EGFR, ROS, Alk etc should be much quicker and cost effective.
FL