ANGLE awarded first large-scale contract for Parsortix liquid biopsy

ANGLE PLC (LON:AGL) has secured its first large-scale pharma services contract for cancer cell collection system Parsortix.

The customer, which was unnamed but said to be a pharma company with several cancer drugs under development and annual revenues of more than US$1bn, will use Parsortix in three separate global clinical trials.

The contract is worth up to US$1.2mln over 18 months and covers work on a large Phase III prostate cancer study and two smaller Phase I studies. 

Parsortix will be used for monitoring before, during and after drug intervention of patients, Angle said.  

Samples of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and clusters will be shipped to ANGLE’s clinical laboratories in the UK and United States for analysis using the Parsortix system.

ANGLE added the contract is the first large-scale adoption of the Parsortix system for processing patient blood samples to help inform decision making in cancer drug trials.

Importantly, it added, the customer recognises the advantage in capturing mesenchymal as well as epithelial cancer cells and the importance that CTC clusters, as well as single CTCs, may have in the progression of disease, metastasis, and drug resistance.

Parsortix also allows the capture of intact cancer cells including mesenchymal cells and clusters and provides the opportunity for longitudinal testing in a clinical setting, which is not possible with tissue biopsy.  

Andrew Newland, ANGLE’s chief executive, said: “We are delighted to have contracted with a pharma company developing numerous cancer drugs and look forward to working closely with them on their trials.

“ANGLE believes that there is a substantial business opportunity in providing services to pharma and biotech customers to support cancer drug trials.

“This contract demonstrates that our investment in clinical laboratories and a pharma services business, a key use of proceeds from our fundraising in October 2020, is already delivering”.

Story by ProactiveInvestors