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Sudbury company attracts $8M investment to support its leading-edge cancer treatment technology

Health Sciences North Research Institute scientist Dr. Amadeo Parissenti said the treatment could potentially better manage the care of cancer patients. (Photo provided) Health Sciences North Research Institute scientist Dr. Amadeo Parissenti said the treatment could potentially better manage the care of cancer patients. (Photo provided)
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A Sudbury-based company has received $8 million in private investment to support its work in cancer diagnostic technology.

Rna Diagnostics grew out of work done at Laurentian University and Health Sciences North Research Institute (HSNRI). Dr. Amadeo Parissenti, a scientist and LU professor, has developed technology that allows doctors to tell whether chemotherapy is having an impact on a patient's cancer.

"The RNA disruption assay (RDA), patented by Laurentian University and licensed to Rna Diagnostics in 2010, determines whether a patient is responding to cancer therapy, early during treatment," the company said in a news release Wednesday.

Using RDA, doctors can determine within five weeks of the start of treatment whether chemotherapy is working, allowing doctors to tailor the treatment according to the individual patient's response.

"This means that if a patient’s tumour is not responding to treatment, 80 per cent of ineffective doses and lost time can be avoided," the company said.

Rna Diagnostics has received $8 million in what's known as 'series A' financing from iGan Partners and BDC Capital. Series A financing is private funding that startup companies receive when their product or service shows enough promise to attract investment.

The discovery of RDA was made in 2007 by Parissenti and his research associate, Dr. Baoqing Guo, in their lab at HSNRI. It was patented by Laurentian University in 2010.

Rna Diagnostics’ laboratory is headquartered at HSNRI in Sudbury.

“The continued support of iGan Partners and our current investors, combined with the support of BDC Capital as a new investment partner, is exciting,” John Connolly, president and CEO of Rna Diagnostics, said in the news release.

“The closing of this series A financing will allow us to complete the pivotal validation trial (BREVITY) of the RNA Disruption Assay. BREVITY is currently recruiting patients at over 40 breast cancer centres in Europe and North America.”

Parissenti continues to study the cellular mechanisms involved in RNA disruption with Dr. Carita Lanner and Dr. Tom Kovala of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in the hopes of finding additional tools to predict or monitor chemotherapy response and outcome in cancer patients.

“Laurentian University is proud to offer its congratulations to Dr. Parissenti and Rna Diagnostics Inc. on this incredible milestone, the investment will provide critical funding to complete the clinical trials and bring to market a technology that will improve cancer treatments worldwide while impacting positively on the quality of life of cancer patients,” Tammy Eger, Laurentian University’s vice-president, research, said in the release.

“A true northern innovation created by outstanding partnerships and collaboration.”

“This is an enormous, expensive problem for cancer centres. Typically, in solid tumors, only 30-40 per cent of patients receive a survival benefit from a given drug regimen,” Connolly added. “Patients with nonresponsive tumours (identified by the RDA) can therefore forgo the ineffective treatment and its side-effects and moved quickly to alternate treatments.”

  

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