Oncimmune Regulatory News (ONC)

8 July 2020

Oncimmune Holdings plc

("Oncimmune" or the "Company")

Paper highlights potential of ImmunoINSIGHTS in the early diagnosis of Rheumatoid arthritis

Oncimmune Holdings plc (AIM: ONC.L), the leading global immunodiagnostics group, is pleased to note the publication of research, supported by its ImmunoINSIGHTS team, in Arthritis Research & Therapy1, entitled 'Profiling IgG antibodies targeting unmodified and corresponding citrullinated autoantigens in a multicentre national cohort of early arthritis in Germany'. The published paper demonstrates the potential to improve early Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) detection using autoantibodies, which, when combined with appropriate therapy/treatment could substantially improve outcomes for patients.

ImmunoINSIGHTS, Oncimmune's autoantibody profiling technology and service business, continues to work in partnership with therapy developers to generate, actionable, value-adding insights for their drug development programmes.

Rheumatoid arthritis is characterised by an inflammation with subsequent progressive destruction of joints. Approximately one-third of people stop work because of RA within 2 years of its onset, increasing thereafter. However, the currently widely available tests for rheumatoid factor and anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA) can only be detected in 70-80% of RA patients, and hence the disease is commonly under-diagnosed.

The aim of the research, led by Oncimmune's Dr. Petra Buddle and Dr Hans-Dieter Zucht, was to assess the diagnostic potential of IgG antibodies to citrullinated and corresponding native autoantigens in early arthritis. The multicentre study involved a total of 411 patients, enrolled at baseline, and a serum sample drawn for autoantibody profiling. 309 (75.2%) patients were eventually classified as having RA. For further analysis, the cohort was randomly split into a test cohort (n = 329) and a validation cohort (n = 82). Patients eventually classified as having RA during follow-up were compared to patients who were not classified as having RA during follow-up.

The paper concludes that the autoantibody, cTRA2B-IgG, has the potential to improve diagnosis of early stage rheumatoid arthritis, which to date has been challenging due to current availability of diagnostics in the therapeutic area.

Dr Adam M Hill, CEO of Oncimmune said: "Oncimmune's ImmunoINSIGHTS team have once again contributed world class science to our collective understanding of a disabling disease, moving the needle in a hard to treat condition. RA is insidious in onset, often resulting in a diagnosis later in the evolution of the disease; clearly, candidate biomarkers able to identify the disease earlier in the majority of sufferers presents a near term opportunity to dramatically improve outcomes. Whilst we remain steadfast in our commitment to cancer patients - supporting the clinical understanding of autoimmune disease biomarkers better enables us to predict side effects in cancer patients treated with immune modulating drugs - the potential to work with biopharma in autoimmune disease is also a possibility". 

1. Vordenbäumen, S., Brinks, R., Schriek, P. et al. Profiling of IgG antibodies targeting unmodified and corresponding citrullinated autoantigens in a multicenter national cohort of early arthritis in Germany. Arthritis Res Ther 22, 167 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-020-02252-6

For further information:

Oncimmune Holdings plc

Adam Hill, Chief Executive Officer

Matthew Hall, Chief Financial Officer

contact@oncimmune.co.uk

Zeus Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)

Andrew Jones, Daniel Harris, Victoria Ayton

+44 (0)20 3829 5000

finnCap (Joint Broker)

Geoff Nash, Matthew Radley, Tim Redfern

+44 (0)20 7220 0500

Media enquiries:

FTI Consulting

Ben Atwell, Michael Trace, Alex Davis

Oncimmune@fticonsulting.com

+44 (0)20 3727 1000

About Oncimmune

Our intimate understanding of the human immune system enables us to harness its sophisticated response to disease to detect cancer earlier and to support the development of better therapies.

The key to improving cancer survival is early detection and better selection for therapy. As a company, we are driven by our passion to improve cancer survival and give people extra time. Oncimmune's immunodiagnostic test, EarlyCDT, can detect and help identify cancer on average four years earlier than standard clinical diagnosis.

The unique combination of our core technology and understanding of the immune system, powers our ImmunoINSIGHTS service; a proprietary platform that enables life science organisations to optimise drug development and delivery, leading to more effective, targeted as well as safer treatments for patients.

Oncimmune was founded in 2002 and launched its platform diagnostic technology in 2009, followed by the launch of its first commercial tests, EarlyCDT Lung and EarlyCDT Liver. To date, over 200,000 tests have been performed for patients worldwide. EarlyCDT Lung was also used in what is believed to be the largest randomised controlled trial for the early detection of lung cancer using biomarkers, the successful National Health Service (NHS) Early detection of Cancer of the Lung ("ECLS") trial of 12,209 high-risk smokers in Scotland. This trial demonstrated that EarlyCDT Lung reduced the incidence of patients with late-stage lung cancer or unclassified presentation at diagnosis, compared to standard clinical practice.

Oncimmune, headquartered at its laboratory facility in Nottingham, UK, has a discovery research centre in Dortmund, Germany and a partner representative office in Shanghai, China. Oncimmune joined the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in May 2016 under the ticker ONC.L.

What is ImmunoINSIGHTS?

The ImmunoINSIGHTS service business leverages Oncimmune's technology platform and methodologies across multiple diseases, to offer life-science organisations actionable insights for therapies across the development and product lifecycle. Our core immune-profiling technology is underpinned by our library of over eight thousand immunogenic proteins, one of the largest of its kind. This helps identify trial participants and patients into clinically relevant subgroups, enabling development of targeted and more effective treatments.

For more information, visit www.oncimmune.com