Carmentix announces collaboration for clinical Preterm Birth study

SINGAPORE, June 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Carmentix Pte. Ltd. is proud to announce a research collaboration with The University of Melbourne (UoM), The Chinese University Hong Kong (CUHK) and The Henan Province People's Hospital for a clinical Preterm Birth study to validate Carmentix's prognostic tool for predicting premature birth.

This multi-centre collaboration follows on from the retrospective study completed in August 2017 with the University of Melbourne, which validated Carmentix's novel proprietary biomarkers in combination with UoM's previously discovered biomarkers. "Carmentix, with the backing of Esco Ventures, has achieved an ambitious milestone in identifying novel biomarkers. We are excited to support Carmentix to pursue a broader validation of the technology to establish its ability to predict preterm birth, weeks or months before symptoms," said XiangQian (XQ) Lin, Executive Chairman of Carmentix.

In this multi-faceted collaboration, dedicated clinicians, midwives and scientists will collect over 15,000 samples over the next 2-3 years. This project will generate one of the largest data-banks of preterm birth samples, enabling statistically robust confirmation of Carmentix's prognostic tool.

"We had an excellent collaboration with the UoM in our initial discovery stage. We are now prepared to push the limits and demonstrate that we can predict preterm birth in prospectively collected multi-ethnic samples, while we are developing our product prototype. We are committed to meeting and exceeding the expectations of stakeholders -- whether they are patients, clinicians, payors or investors before setting foot in the market," said Dr. Nir Arbel, CEO Carmentix.

"Our collaboration with Carmentix has been a fruitful venture, now giving us the opportunity to fully exploit the potential of our biomarkers with a common goal to reaching market in the very near future," said UoM chief scientist, Dr Harry Georgiou. Obstetrician and researcher, A/Prof. Megan Di Quinzio, commented that "with the involvement of both the Royal Women's Hospital and the Mercy Hospital for Women in Melbourne, the prospect of a reliable prognostic test for preterm birth is nearing reality, enabling clinicians to make informed decisions on patient care."

CUHK Prof Liona Poon said: "Preterm birth remains a leading global health problem and despite our efforts its rate continues to rise. There is an urgent need to develop predictive tools for the early identification of pregnant women at risk, thus allowing prophylactic interventions. The Carmentix biomarkers appear to be promising and we are excited to be part of the prospective validation study."