Ixico signs on two new biopharmaceutical clients

(Sharecast News) - Data analytics company Ixico has signed contracts with two biopharmaceutical companies to provide its technology-enabled imaging services to support an early phase study in Huntington's disease (HD), and a phase 3 study in another rare neurological disease.The AIM-traded firm said the contracts were both the first to be signed with the clients. As the selected imaging analysis partner for the studies, Ixico said it would utilise its data analytics expertise to provide "critical insights", which would support the evaluation of drug safety and efficacy.Study planning and site set-up activities were due to start "imminently", contributing revenues for 2019 and into future periods.The HD contract had a total value of about £2m, the board said, which would be delivered over a seven-year term.It described HD was a rare genetic neurodegenerative disorder that affected movement, cognition and behaviour, which was an area of "significant" unmet medical need as there were currently no effective marketed treatments.With 12 years' experience in HD studies and data analytics, Ixico described itself as an "established industry leader", having supported early observational studies led by academic centres in Europe and North America, which characterised the progression of the disease.Since then, it said it had been successful in providing its clinical trial services to pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies working in the "important" area of clinical development.The second contract was with a company undergoing a phase 3 study in another rare neurological disease.That was initially a start-up agreement to enable Ixico to begin to deploy its services to the study, which anticipated recruiting patients in June.A contract for the full study was expected to be completed in the coming months."Today's announcement follows multiple recent new contracts in Huntington's disease and builds on Ixico's strong track record and growing momentum in providing neuroimaging data analytics to important clinical research programmes in underserved neurodegenerative and rare neurological diseases," said chief executive officer Giulio Cerroni.The field of rare neurological disease research is rapidly advancing and our continued success in winning new business in this area demonstrates the confidence that our clients have in our scientific and technical expertise to support their expanding clinical development programmes."