MagnePath, an Australian company, is a digital health-medtech crossover that sees a way to reduce the time and cost of liver biopsies by using MRI scans to help map the liver. The technique initially focuses on providing images to support clinicians diagnosing patients for fatty liver disease and related conditions. But it also envisions the technology as a way to support pharma research and development for liver drugs.
The long range goal is to develop a broad platform for rapid development of imaging biomarkers throughout the entire body, with specifics targets for clinical research in disease and drug development.
Its “virtual liver biopsy,” called LiverMap, makes use of MRI technology. The company claims its approach can shave fours hours off the process because it does not involve surgery nor the pain associated with a liver biopsy procedure. Its approach involves doing an MRI scan with its algorithm. Mark Punyanitya, a co-founder, is setting up U.S. headquarters in New York for MagnePath, which officially launches in the US market this month. He presented the company’s technology at Health 2.0 last week and claimed its approach takes five to 10 minutes.
In a phone interview, Punyanitya clarified his role, which is to develop MagnePath USA, Inc., and commercialize the technology out of its world headquarters in Australia, MagnePath Pty Ltd.
The company claims its images to measure fat, inflammation, iron and fibrosis in the liver are much clearer than the current standard of care.
He emphasized that it is in the early stages of developing its product for the U.S. market. He said that its imaging platform technology would be used as a quantification tool to aid clinicians, not a diagnostic tool in its own right. It is in talks with pharmaceutical companies and teaching hospitals to use its technology to support clinical trials for liver drug development. It is also planning to present its technology at Pennsylvania Bio’s upcoming Life Sciences Future conference.
He added the company is in the process of registering to conduct pharma trials.
It is exploring its options. It may decide to develop it as a research tool in an academic setting.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Fatty liver disease affects 30 percent of people in the U.S. and is caused by obesity, diabetes and lifestyle choices, according to American Liver Foundation. It can lead to fibrosis, cirrhosis and cancer.
There’s been increasing interest in using simulators to prep for surgery but a virtual diagnostic support tool seems like a new chapter in the way we think of imaging. Some of the other companies in this space are Perspectum Diagnostics and KineMed
