St. Louis gastrointestinal health startup Geneoscopy Inc. has inked a partnership that will expand the scope of its health screening technology beyond its initial focus on detecting colon cancer.
Geneoscopy said Tuesday it has formed a collaboration with Concord, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Adiso Therapeutics Inc. that involves the St. Louis firm’s stool-based screening technology being used as part of a clinical trial for a drug designed to treat inflammatory bowel disease. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
The partnership brings together two well-funded startups focused on developing new medical treatments and diagnostic tests for patients. Adiso, which is developing drugs for inflammatory diseases, was launched publicly in 2022 by Chinese venture capital firm Morningside Ventures. with an investment of $60 million-plus. Geneoscopy, founded in 2015, has raised more than $100 million in financing and focused efforts on developing a preventative at-home screening test for colorectal cancer, but its leadership has had ambition to expand the use of its technology.
“I’ve always had the vision that Geneoscopy and our technology is a platform that can be leveraged for other gastrointestinal diseases,” Erica Barnell, Geneoscopy co-founder and chief science officer, said Tuesday in an interview.
The partnership with Adiso comes as Geneoscopy edges closer to commercializing its screening test, ColoSense, for colorectal cancer. Geneoscopy in January released positive results of its clinical trial for the test and has said it expects U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for ColoSense to come in the first half of 2024. As ColoSense nears FDA approval, Barnell said Geneoscophy’s research and development team has turned its attention to other applications of its technology to be used in gastrointestinal health. That has included conducting pilot studies with pharmaceutical companies, including Adiso.
Through the partnership announced Tuesday, Geneoscopy’s stool-based screening technology will be used in the phase two clinical trial for Adiso’s drug candidate ADS051, an oral medication for inflammatory bowel disease. Barnell said Geneoscopy’s screening technology has the ability to allow for the practice of precision medicine, helping to determine which patients are likely to aid from treatment of the drug candidate while showing capability of tracking the effectiveness of treatment. Adiso said it plans to begin recruiting patients for its phase two clinical trial in 2024.
“Employing precision immunology within our trial holds the potential to significantly advance our ability to provide IBD patients with a novel and highly differentiated treatment option that targets their specific needs,” said Scott Megaffin, CEO of Adiso, in a statement.
Barnell said she believes Geneoscopy’s technology holds promise in its ability to determine who could aid from treatment through a noninvasive format and also improve the ability to monitor treatment. She said those components of treatment are currently completed through measures such as patient surveying and procedures like endoscopies.
Geneoscopy has its headquarters at 2220 Welsch Industrial Court, near Westport Plaza. It announced last month it entered into a multiyear distribution agreement with Labcorp (NYSE: LH) to provide its preventive, at-home screening test for colorectal cancer.
