Vortex Gains CE Mark and FDA Class 1 Registration

RNS Number : 2980O

NetScientific PLC

03 November 2016

 

("NetScientific" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Portfolio Company Vortex Biosciences Gains CE Mark and registers Class 1 Medical Device with FDA

London, UK - November 3 - NetScientific plc (AIM:NSCI), the transatlantic healthcare IP commercialisation group, announces that its portfolio company, Vortex Biosciences, has been awarded a CE Mark for its proprietary Circulating Tumour Cell (CTC) capture system, the VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy System, and has registered a Class I medical device with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Commenting on the news, NetScientific's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Vortex, Francois R. Martelet, said: "Both the CE Mark and FDA Class 1 registration are significant milestones achieved towards making VTX-1 commercially available in early 2017 and bringing us closer to the sale of the system in the clinical market in the US."

Vortex Bioscience's press release follows:

Vortex Biosciences Establishes CE Mark and Receives FDA Class 1 Registration for Circulating Tumor Cell Capture System

~ CE Mark and FDA Class 1 Registration of VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy System Represents Significant Milestone Towards Commercializing a Next Generation Circulating Tumor Cell Capture System ~

MENLO PARK, CA, November 3, 2016 - Vortex Biosciences, provider of circulating tumor cell (CTC) capture systems, today announced it has registered a Class I medical device with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and established a CE Mark for its proprietary CTC capture system, the VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy System. The CE Mark allows Vortex to install systems in the European Economic Area (EEA). VTX-1 will initially be distributed into the Research Use Only (RUO) market. The FDA Class 1 registration is a first step towards the sale of the system in the clinical market.

A CE mark indicates the VTX-1 has met all applicable directives of the European Commission (EC) and subsequently the laws and regulations of the European Union (EU) member states and therefore can be commercialized within the 30-nation EEA and Switzerland. The establishment of this CE mark involved thorough evaluation and testing of the VTX-1 to assure it performs safely and as designed.  The FDA Class 1 registration ensures we are operating within FDA guidelines for the use of the system.

"We are committed to introducing a next generation CTC capture system that allows CTCs to realize their tremendous potential for investigating and diagnosing cancer," said Gene Walther, Chief Executive Officer of Vortex Biosciences. "The CE Mark and FDA Class 1 registration both represent significant milestones towards making the powerful VTX-1 commercially available in early 2017."

Representative of cancer status in the patient, CTCs, shed by tumors, can potentially allow for better characterization of the disease, resulting in more informed treatment decisions. Cancer cells are traditionally obtained through tissue biopsies. Biopsies are costly, painful, often not possible, and cannot be performed on all possible tumor sites. CTCs offer tremendous potential, but are relatively scarce, with concentrations as low as 1-10 CTCs/mL of whole blood, against a background of millions of white blood cells and billions of red blood cells. Capturing CTCs out of whole blood is a critical step in utilizing CTCs for cancer diagnosis, better cancer treatment decisions and disease monitoring.

The Vortex VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy System is a fully automated benchtop system for collecting intact CTCs using microfluidic technology. Inside the VTX-1 chip, unlabeled CTCs in whole blood are trapped in microscale vortices while smaller red and white blood cells pass through. After selective trapping into the microfluidic chambers, CTCs can be flushed and collected into a variety of containers for downstream analysis.

The Vortex CTC isolation process is label-free and contact-free, keeping CTCs intact and viable. Samples processed by the VTX-1 minimize white blood cell contamination, resulting in a highly pure CTC sample with minimal white blood cell contamination. This offers significant advantages for downstream analysis:

·     Isolated CTCs remain representative of the patient's cancer status and unbiased by molecular characteristics.

·     CTCs collected at higher purity increase the accuracy and sensitivity of downstream assays.

·     CTCs are unaltered and undamaged by labels or reagents and easily collected, making them ideal for live cell assays and cell culture experiments

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For more information, please contact:

NetScientific François R. Martelet, M.D., CEO Ian Postlethwaite, CFO	Tel: [phone]
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (NOMAD and broker) Jonathan Senior / David Arch / Ben Maddison	Tel: [phone]
Consilium Strategic Communications Mary-Jane Elliott / Jessica Hodgson / Chris Welsh / Laura Thornton	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

About NetScientific Plc

NetScientific is a transatlantic healthcare IP commercialisation group focused on improving the health and well-being of people with chronic diseases. For more information, please visit the website at www.netscientific.net.

About Vortex Biosciences

Vortex Biosciences is a cancer research and diagnostics company that integrates cancer biology, microfluidic engineering and informatics to develop tools for isolating and characterizing circulating tumor cells. The Vortex technology will enable the harvesting of intact circulating tumor cells from whole blood samples for use in downstream research and clinical applications such as patient stratification in clinical trials, monitoring disease progression and drug treatment effectiveness. With a mission to enable noninvasive diagnosis of cancer and real-time monitoring throughout a patient's treatment, Vortex is at the forefront of accelerating cancer research and improving patient outcomes. Vortex is a core subsidiary of NetScientific plc, a transatlantic healthcare technology group with an investment strategy focused on sourcing, funding and commercializing technologies that significantly improve the health and well-being of people with chronic diseases. For more information, visit www.vortexbiosciences.com.

 

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