C2N Diagnostics, a leader in developing Alzheimer’s disease-specific fluid biomarker tests, has announced a $15 million program-related investment from GHR Foundation to enhance its testing capabilities for tau tangle pathology. Tau tangles are crucial indicators in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease and are thought to significantly influence the disease’s clinical progression.
This new funding will support the development of tests that offer a non-invasive alternative to traditional tau PET tracers, which can be costly and difficult to access. The upcoming tests will focus on a combination of tau-based blood biomarkers, such as MTBR-tau, which are essential for detecting pathological tau tangles and neurites associated with Alzheimer’s disease. These biomarkers will help in differentiating clinical Alzheimer’s disease from other cognitive symptoms, staging the disease biologically, and aiding in the development of tau-targeted therapeutics.
“Our innovative, precision medicine-focused work has already galvanized the science and platform for developing and commercializing novel diagnostics,” said Dr. Joel Braunstein, CEO of C2N. “Now, we’re poised to add tests for tau-based blood biomarkers to our Alzheimer’s disease testing portfolio. The real benefit of this collaboration with GHR will be seen by patients, families, and health systems affected by Alzheimer’s disease.”
In addition to the GHR Foundation investment, C2N has recently received up to $7.025 million from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s (ADDF) Diagnostics Accelerator initiative, which aims to create a decentralized clinical mass spectrometry solution for high-performance Alzheimer’s testing worldwide. Previous funding from GHR supported C2N’s current blood test, PrecivityAD2, which was launched in 2023. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published research demonstrating that the PrecivityAD2 test offers diagnostic performance on par with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and amyloid PET scans for detecting brain amyloid pathology.
“C2N’s tests are establishing a new gold standard for Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis,” stated Amy Rauenhorst Goldman, CEO and GHR board Chair. “We are confident in C2N’s efforts to tackle tau detection in the blood, achieving a more comprehensive understanding of Alzheimer’s pathology at any disease stage.”
The PrecivityAD2 blood test has shown an impressive accuracy rate of 90% or higher among patients, regardless of whether they were treated in primary or secondary care settings. In comparison, standard evaluation tools like history, physical exams, routine blood tests, and imaging resulted in correct Alzheimer’s diagnoses in only 61% of primary care cases and 73% in memory specialist evaluations.
“Our next generation of tests for tau tangle pathology will build on the demand we’ve seen with our other Precivity™ tests,” Dr. Braunstein added, highlighting the anticipated impact of these advancements on Alzheimer’s disease diagnostics.
