The Company

Augurex Life Sciences Corp. develops biomarkers to help diagnose patients, whom when identified can be promptly treated, thereby delivering the benefit of earlier detection. Biomarkers can also be used to optimize therapy by predicting which treatment will personally offer them maximum therapeutic benefit while minimizing their side effects. Hence the Augurex signature; Identify, Optimize, Personalize.

Augurex’s lead technology, 14-3-3η is a novel protein biomarker of arthritis which is a simple blood test that when positive, indicates a 5 to 50 times greater likelihood of the patient having rheumatoid arthritis (RA) than other auto-immune conditions or healthy joints. RA is a disease that affects approximately 10 million people worldwide; however, it can be difficult for a primary care physician to diagnose because the joint pain symptoms are common to other conditions. This often delays RA patient referral to an arthritis specialist where they could otherwise receive therapies to treat or possibly halt the disease. RA is a particularly debilitative form of arthritis that, if left untreated, results in 70% of patients developing irreversible joint damage within 2 years of symptom onset.

14-3-3η is also shown to be centrally involved in the RA disease process and thereby represents a drug target that when blocked, may help in the treatment of disease.

When the protein that is being measured by a blood test also serves as a drug target, there is the opportunity for the development of a "personalized medicine" where you can specifically identify patients who will benefit from the treatment and closely monitor therapy response and optimize their disease management. In RA, the development of the disease includes multiple factors that act to varying degrees in different patients. Therefore, in multi-factorial diseases like RA, targeted therapies (or personalized medicines) that focus on the most prominent disease contributors in individual patients ensure that only those who will benefit from the drug receive it.

Augurex focuses on the advancement of its products in partnership with scientific, clinical and commercial collaborators. The synergies gained by these partnerships allow for an accelerated understanding of clinical uses and more rapidly provide physicians and patients with access to the products.