Cambridge Cog Regulatory News (COG)

13 October 2016

Cambridge Cognition Holdings Plc

('Cambridge Cognition' or the 'Company')

Contracts signed in new drug development market

The neuroscience company Cambridge Cognition Holdings PLC (Cambridge, UK - LSE: COG), which develops and markets near patient technologies to facilitate the development of treatments for neurological disorders, today announced a series of new contracts worth over £0.25m to assess, through CANTAB Connect, the abuse potential of investigational drugs in a new market application for the Company.

Since launching its cloud-based CANTAB Connect software platform in 2014, Cambridge Cognition has become the leading provider of Human Abuse Liability (HAL) assessment technology1, helping the Company's drug development partners to achieve multiple FDA approved abuse deterrent labels.

To date the Company has signed 35 HAL contracts following the launch of the CANTAB Connect Abuse Liability product (vs. 8 before 2014), with revenues totalling in excess of £3m (vs. £0.6m before 2014) in a market which is expected to continue to grow.

The abuse of prescription drugs is the fastest growing drug problem in North America. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an estimated 48 million people in the U.S. have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons.

With the rising number of compounds targeting the central nervous system and tighter government regulation in place, clinical trials assessing drug abuse potential are becoming more commonplace and necessary.

These HAL trials require more time and resources than most Phase I trials. The CANTAB Connect platform has been used to significantly reduce data errors and increase efficiencies in these studies, saving both time and cost for drug manufacturers.

The contracts announced today will use CANTAB Connect to assess abuse potential in a new, unexplored and growing therapeutic area, which is an extension of the HAL market targeted to date.

Steven Powell, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge Cognition: "Where labour-intensive, imprecise and error-prone manual tests were used previously to measure drug effects, our computerised solutions now improve trial efficiencies and optimise the likelihood of success throughout all stages of drug development. Human abuse liability studies play an increasingly important role in this process and we look forward to supporting new and existing partners and customers through our enlarged commercial team as this market continues to grow."

1 Abuse potential refers to a drug that is used in nonmedical situations, repeatedly or even sporadically, for the positive psychoactive effects it produces. These drugs are characterized by their central nervous system (CNS) activity. Examples of the psychoactive effects they produced include sedation, euphoria, perceptual and other cognitive distortions, hallucinations, and mood changes. Drugs with abuse potential often (but not always) produce psychic or physical dependence and may lead to the disorder of addiction. 

Source: Guidance for Industry Assessment of Abuse Potential of Drugs, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 2010

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About Cambridge Cognition

Cambridge Cognition is an international neuroscience company which develops and markets near patient cognitive assessment products to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

For over 30 years the company's patented technology has advanced the assessment of cognition to accelerate the development of safe and effective treatments, improve patient outcomes and measure cognitive health throughout life.

Partners include the world's leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and public-private healthcare providers.

www.cambridgecognition.com