Biopharmaceutical company Aptorum Group Ltd. (APM:NASDAQ, APM:Euronext Paris), which focuses on developing new technologies targeting infectious diseases, today announced its "launch of Aptorum Innovations - an infectious disease liquid biopsy diagnostics subsidiary and its newly established exclusive in-licensing arrangements with Accelerate Technologies Pte. Ltd., the commercialization arm of the Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), to co-develop novel molecular-based rapid pathogen identification and detection diagnostics (RPIDD) technology."
The company stated that Aptorum Innovations was formed in order to target the global molecular diagnostics market, which it predicts will reach US$13.8 billion in 2025. The firm added that around 60% of this market is for the areas of infectious diseases.
The firm mentioned that the core objectives of RPIDD technology, which was initiated and is currently under development at A*STAR, are "to rapidly and accurately identify and detect existing or emerging unknown pathogens (including DNA/RNA-based viruses such as coronavirus, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi) in a cost-effective, unbiased and broad-spectrum manner, through liquid biopsy, genome sequencing and artificial intelligence driven software analytics."
The firm advised that Aptorum Innovations is the exclusive licensee and commercializing party of the technology being developed in close cooperation with A*STAR and licensed by Accelerate Technologies.
Aptorum Group's Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director Dr. Clark Cheng remarked, "Aptorum Group expands its potential infectious disease liquid biopsy diagnostics capabilities in synergy with its current infectious disease platform (for example, the leading Staphylococcus aureus drug program ALS-4) and supports worldwide antimicrobial stewardship policies (ASPs). Bacteremia infections, for example, alone cause nearly 500,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. annually and account for 11% of ICU admissions with over $20.3 billion in aggregate cost. Mortality associated with these infections is extremely high and can range anywhere from 25-80%...Current blood culture-based testing is often inaccurate and time-consuming (up to 3 days on average) resulting in unnecessary patient morbidity and increased risks of mortality. Moreover, current broad spectrum molecular diagnostics are often too cost-benefit prohibitive and therefore are not adopted as the first line of diagnostics for healthcare providers – with our technology we target to reduce end user costs by over 60% (or more) relative to current service provider average prices."
The company explained that its "next-generation Rapid Pathogen Identification and Detection Diagnostics Technology (RPIDD) is an innovative liquid biopsy-driven rapid pathogen molecular diagnostics technology with proprietary and patented technologies being developed to deplete host DNA and enrich pathogenic DNA / RNA for analysis through harnessing the power of Next-Generation Sequencing platforms (such as Illumina's sequencing platforms) and proprietary artificial intelligence-based software analytics to rapidly identify and detect in blood over a potential targeted 1000+ viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites present through its genome composition and other unknown pathogens." The firm indicated that RPIDD has been validated in human samples and this testing has succeeded in detecting pathogens including bacteria, fungi and viruses.
Aptorum Group Ltd. is a pharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing therapeutic assets to treat infectious diseases and cancers. The firm noted that its drug discovery platforms help advance the discovery of new therapeutics and assist in systematic screening of existing approved drug molecules and microbiome-based research platform for treatments of metabolic diseases. The company stated that it is additionally pursuing therapeutic and diagnostic projects in gastroenterology, metabolic disorders, neurology, women's health and other disease areas. The company maintains offices in London, Hong Kong, Paris, New York, Singapore and near Toronto.
Aptorum Group Ltd. started off the day with a market capitalization of around $37.1 million with approximately 30.39 million shares outstanding. APM shares opened nearly 600% higher today at $8.22 (+$7.00, +573.77%) over yesterday's $1.22 closing price. The stock has traded wildly today between $4.68 and $14.23 per share and closed at $4.76 (+$3.54, +290.16%).
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