LONDON (Alliance News) - Proteome Sciences PLC expects strong growth in the second half of 2013 with its contract sales side growing sharply, according to Chief Executive, Christopher Pearce.
"Our contract sales side has been growing sharply [and] we expect to see that to continue. We will allow diagnostic companies to acquire some of our intellectual property for their own requirements. That will entail substantial royalties," Pearce told Alliance News in a telephone interview. "We expect strong growth in the second half of 2013," he added.
Proteome Sciences, the drug company which studies proteins in order to identify and treat cancers and Alzheimer's disease earlier, is fresh from showing results at the HUPO congress in Japan, where it demonstrated products which it said show good results in identifying and treating Alzheimer's disease quicker.
"HUPO is a major meeting, a coming together of academics and commercial players in the business. It's an important meeting to go and see what technological changes may be coming. We were simply able to announce two or three importantly new developments which we presented at the congress," Pearce told Alliance News.
"In an ageing population, Alzheimer's disease is affecting everybody. At this point in time there are not any good therapeutics for the disease so diagnosis is usually too late. We have built up markers to identify and diagnose Alzheimers itself," Pearce said. "And by identifying the first signs of memory loss, we can diagnose the disease sooner," he added.
Alzheimer's, which often goes undetected because symptoms are mistaken for natural signs of ageing, can cause memory loss, confusion or trouble with language. It is more common in elderly people. Proteome said it has discovered a product which can reduce the build up of proteins that are associated with the development of Alzheimer's.
Due to the potential scope of this product, distribution is important; "We want the right pharmaceutical partner to take these licences on," Pearce said.
Meanwhile, Proteome Sciences said another of its products is able to predict the likelihood of tumour recurrence in order to give personalised treatment to cancer patients.
"We're a middleman, a pure research entity owning important intellectual property and will collect royalties as people pick up and use these things. We provide access to these technologies on an outsourcing basis to diagnostics companies and the proprietary ownership of the discoveries is protected by IP," Pearce said.
Proteome's new cancer developments have so far commanded considerable interest from global commercial pharmaceuticals and diagnosticians, according to Pearce.
On June 12, Proteome Sciences announced a USD2.1 million agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to develop advanced methods to profile changes in key cancer pathways.
Proteome shares were Wednesday quoted at 47 pence, up 1 pence, or 2.2%.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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