- POAI’s
planned acquisition of Quantitative Medicine (QM) will revolutionize the
way precision therapies are developed
- QM’s
CoRE platform predicts main effects of drugs on target molecules that
mediate disease
- Synergies
created by acquisition support POAI’s efforts to accelerate the
commercialization of its AI-driven predictive model services
Predictive Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: POAI) has announced
the latest development in its mission to become the leader in the cancer
precision-medicine field. In line with its focus on applying artificial
intelligence (AI) to personalized medicine and drug discovery, POAI has signed
a signed a Letter of Intent to acquire Quantitative Medicine (QM), a leading
biomedical analytics and computational biology company (http://ibn.fm/8X3zm).
Founded by Drs. Robert Murphy and Joshua Kangas, both of
Carnegie Mellon University, QM has developed a novel, computational
drug-discovery platform called CoRE. This innovative platform predicts the main
effects of drugs on target molecules that mediate disease, thereby dramatically
reducing the time, cost and financial risk of discovering new therapeutic
drugs. POAI’s planned acquisition of QM, which is subject to the negotiation of
a definitive agreement and other terms and conditions, is expected to be
complete by March 2020.
“By coupling QM’s CoRE predictive modeling platform with our
tumor profiling expertise and data we believe we can revolutionize the way
precision therapies are developed,” Dr. Carl Schwartz, president and CEO of
Predictive Oncology, stated in a news release. Schwartz explained that the
synergies created by the planned acquisition should be a major support in
POAI’s efforts to accelerate the commercialization of its AI-driven technology
and services.
Through its subsidiary Helomics, Predictive Oncology is
building AI-driven predictive models of tumor drug response and outcomes from
its data base of drug-response and genomics profiles gathered from more than
150,000 cancer cases. POAI plans to integrate its proprietary data and
AI-driven predictive models with CoRE to rapidly build robust predictive models
of how specific types of tumors will react to cancer drug therapies.
“Our goal is to provide researchers in pharma, biopharma and
diagnostic companies with actionable insights that will not only drive the
development of new precision therapies, companion diagnostics, and biomarkers,
but will also help them design better targeted trials,” added Schwartz.
“Working together, we have the potential to dramatically improve patient
outcomes.”
CoRE was developed at what was originally the Ray and
Stephanie Lane Center for Computational Biology; the center eventually became
the Computational Biology Department at Carnegie Mellon University. CoRE has
been tested by several pharma companies with considerable success. In addition
to predicting the main effects of drugs on target molecules that mediate
disease, CoRE is designed to predict the effects of drugs on other molecules or
pathways in the body that could mediate adverse effects, as well as the
interaction of these with underlying genetic variations.
Moreover, CoRE identifies similarities in relationships of
drug candidates screened against a diverse matrix of pathogenic, cellular,
molecular and/or systems biology targets. Drawing on CoRE’s unmatched ability
to add new data from existing research or additional wet-lab experiments, POAI
is confident that its predictive models will be improved—and with improved
predictions comes accelerated drug discovery and development.
POAI is bringing precision medicine, or tailored medical
treatment using the individual characteristics of each patient, to the
treatment of cancer. Through its Helomics division, the company leverages its
unique, clinically validated patient derived (PDx) smart tumor profiling
platform to provide oncologists with a roadmap to help individualize therapy.
In addition, the company is leveraging artificial intelligence and its
proprietary database of over 150,000 cancer cases tumors to build AI-driven models
of tumor drug repose to improve outcomes for the patients of today and
tomorrow.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Predictive-Oncology.com
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates
relating to POAI are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/POAI
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