Bioventix invests in CVD diagnostics start-up CardiNor

Companies to jointly develop “missing link” Secretoneurin biomarker.

Oslo, January 14, Scandinavian cardiovascular diagnostics start-up CardiNor AS today announced a collaboration with leading UK antibody specialist Bioventix plc (BVXP). Under the terms of the agreement Bioventix will develop and provide antibodies for CardiNor’s new Secretoneurin (SN) IVD test. Aimed at the estimated USD 4 billion cardiovascular risk assessment market, the assay is intended for launch in early 2017.  Under the terms of the agreement, Bioventix will take a 10% shareholding in CardiNor.

Secretoneurin is a neuropeptide that has been shown by researchers at Akershus University Hospital, University of Oslo and Akademiska in Uppsala Sweden to be an independent CVD risk marker linked to the myocyte calcium regulation. This led to recent editorial in JACC, the Journal of Clinical Cardiology, entitled: “Will secretoneurin be the next big thing in cardiovascular risk assessment?” assessing its potential to become provide a third key frontline assay alongside troponin and BNP for cardiovascular risk assessment,

“Secretoneurin has the potential to provide a far better tool for selecting patients for cardiac rhythm management” says CardiNor CEO Dag Christiansen. “The current regime lacks the desired sensitivity and specificity for patient selection. It is known that 70% of patients with an (ICD) implantable cardioverter-defibrillator do not actually need the device. This in turn causes both unnecessary patient stress and device costs of USD 10 billion. By working with Bioventix utilising their antibody and ELISA expertise, to develop a simple blood-based Secretoneurin test, we believe we can dramatically change this situation and provide the missing link in CV risk assessment”.

Peter Harrison, CEO of Bioventix plc said “We are delighted to be involved with CardiNor in their secretoneurin project working with both experienced industry people and world-renowned scientific experts in the CVD biomarker field. We have many years’ experience of making high affinity sheep monoclonal antibodies for various diagnostic applications including cardiac markers.  We believe that our technology and experience will add to the high quality of basic research that has resulted in the secretoneurin assay project”.

To download this report as a PDF file click here.

For further information, please contact:

CardiNor As
Dag Christiansen, Chief Executive Officer. Tel: +47 922 54 855

Bioventix plc
Peter Harrison, Chief Executive Officer – Tel: +47 922 54 855

finnCap Ltd
Geoff Nash/Simon Hicks, Corporate Finance – Tel: 020 7220 0500
Steve Norcross, Corporate Broking – Tel: 020 7220 0500

About CardiNor AS

CardiNor is a Norwegian diagnostics company established in 2015 to commercialise research at the Akershus University Hospital into cardiovascular risk markers, in particular Secretoneurin. This neuropeptide has been shown to be implicated heavily in myocyte calcium regulation and is thus considered to have great potential in cardiac health management. The company’s management and scientific team has extensive experience in the field, having been involved in the development of numerous frontline clinical assays including BNP and Homocysteine. Lead investors are the founders and Inven2, the largest tech transfer office in the Nordic region.

About Bioventix plc:

Bioventix specialises in the development and commercial supply of high-affinity monoclonal antibodies with a primary focus on their application in clinical diagnostics, such as in automated immunoassays used in blood testing.  The antibodies created at Bioventix are generated in sheep and are of particular benefit where the target is present at low concentration and where conventional monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies have failed to produce a suitable reagent.  Bioventix currently offers a portfolio of antibodies to customers for both commercial use and R&D purposes, for the diagnosis or monitoring of a broad range of conditions, including heart disease, cancer, fertility, thyroid function and drug abuse.  Bioventix currently supplies antibody products and services to the majority of multinational clinical diagnostics companies.  Bioventix is based in Farnham, UK and its shares are traded on AIM under the symbol BVXP.