BERBĒS tasked to identify potential early adopters of genoSCORE^TM-LAB in Spain, a new risk assessment test which enables physicians to support patients with lifestyle changes, and guide possible use of drug therapy, to delay the onset of disease symptoms

14 July 2021: Oxford and Manchester, UK; Madrid, Spain.  Cytox Ltd, which provides non-invasive, risk assessment and patient stratification tools for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia, announces the appointment of BERBĒS, a Public Relations agency specialised in healthcare, to support market development and penetration in Spain.

Within the collaboration BERBĒS will use their networks of clinics, medical practitioners, and associations focused on Alzheimer’s disease, to support the Cytox medical education programme. Under this programme Cytox will be hosting a series of virtual events to present the new genoSCORE-LAB test. If you or your colleagues would like to join such a meeting or require more information please contact BERBĒS team (contact details below).

Ian McLellan, Commercial Operations at Cytox commented: “We are pleased to be working with the BERBĒS team who are bringing their expertise to our market development and we are already making great progress in bringing our new test to the attention of brain health practitioners in Spain. Alzheimer’s disease affects over 46 million people in the world¹, and around 700.000 adults over 40 years old in Spain³. We see this new test as a powerful tool to enable physicians to make immediate decisions about their patients’ risk of cognitive decline due to Alzheimer’s disease, and guide them towards effective lifestyle and therapeutic interventions that can have a significant impact on delaying the onset of disease symptoms and cognitive decline” ².

Pedro Cano, BERBĒS CEO commented: “At BERBES we are delighted with this collaboration, which reinforces our role as strategic partners for our international clients. We are keen to work with Cytox to navigate our national health ecosystem, not only with traditional communication media tools but also using new approaches and strategies in order to announce and introduce genoSCORE-LAB test to multiple agents in Spain”.

About Cytox (www.cytoxgroup.com)

Without new drug therapies, the economic and healthcare cost burden of dementia - including Alzheimer's disease (AD) - is estimated to exceed $1tn per year in the next decade¹.  AD – a highly complex disease with risk factors based in genetics, lifestyle, age, and environment. Cytox’s products genoSCORE^TM and genoTOR^TM use Polygenic Risk Scoring (PRS) to predict the risk of individuals developing AD, and to improve clinical trial outcomes through patient stratification and the genetic characterisation of the disease.

Contacts:

Ian McLellan, Commercial Operations, Cytox

Tel: +44 (0)1865 338 018

Adam Michael – Communications Lead, Cytox

Tel: +44 777 588 1813

adam.michael@cytoxgroup.com

About BERBĒS, healthy brands

We are a communication agency specialized in health and consumption. We transform brands by defining and implementing personalized communication strategies for each specific case with the direct involvement of those responsible for each business area.

We have more than 24 years of experience in the sector and a great team of specialists and professionals for the new reality of communication as a guarantee of the success of each project.

Contacts:

María Valerio / Carmen Rodríguez, BERBĒS

Tel: + 34 91 563 23 00

mariavalerio@berbes.com / carmenrodriguez@berbes.com

About genoSCORE™

genoSCORE is a new non-invasive, genetic test to predict future risk of cognitive decline due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The test, which uses a simple blood or saliva sample, analyses patient genotypes against an array of over 100,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with AD. As such, the test generates a patient-specific polygenic risk score (PRS).

Clinicians can use the genoSCORE powered test to assess patients for the risk of developing Alzheimer's, before symptoms arise, prior to invasive cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing or expensive scanning techniques. Furthermore, the test’s simplicity of use would enable elderly and vulnerable patients self-isolating due to COVID-19, or not wishing or easily able to attend healthcare settings, to provide a suitable sample from home.

Developers of new AD drug therapies can also use genoSCORE to identify and recruit patients to clinical studies, ensuring the selection of the most suitable candidates, those most likely to experience cognitive decline over the time period of the study.

This test is a measure of relative risk for future onset of Late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) and should not be considered as a standalone diagnostic test. A high genoSCORE test result does not indicate that an individual will definitively develop LOAD in the future, and conversely, a low genoSCORE result does not categorically mean that subsequent onset of LOAD will never occur. The test result should be used in conjunction with other information available to the physician.

References:

1         World Alzheimer’s Report 2015 www.alz.co.uk/research/WorldAlzheimerReport2015.pdf

2         Lancet Commission: Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32738937/

3         Spanish Ministry of Health. Alzheimer and dementia Plan (2019-2023) https://www.mscbs.gob.es/profesionales/saludPublica/docs/Plan_Integral_Alhzeimer_Octubre_2019.pdf