NEW YORK – Owlstone Medical announced Tuesday that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has made an equity investment of up to $2.3 million in the disease detection and precision medicine company. The investment supports development of a breath-based assay for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common infection in CF patients.
A progressive genetic disease impacting 40,000 people in the US and 105,000 people worldwide, CF causes excess mucus in the lungs that in turn can trap bacterial pathogens and cause infection.
P. aeruginosa, in particular, impacts approximately one-quarter of CF patients and is challenging to eliminate once established. Sputum culture is the gold standard detection method for P. aeruginosa. However, children produce little sputum, while adults on CF therapies have reduced airway mucus.
With the new investment, Owlstone will develop a proof-of-principle test that can be used both for the detection of P. aeruginosa in patients with CF and the monitoring of chronic infections.
The test is intended to have a diagnostic accuracy on par with traditional sputum culture, Owlstone said in a statement, and will use the firm's volatile organic compound analysis expertise to distinguish P. aeruginosa from Staphylococcus aureus and other bacterial pathogens commonly detected in the lungs of CF patients.
"Owlstone's experience in the breath-based detection of infectious disease through projects with the US Department of Defense, the Gates Foundation, and other partners, underpinned by our proprietary Breath Biopsy platform, places Owlstone in an excellent position to help improve outcomes for CF patients infected with P. aeruginosa," Owlstone Cofounder and CEO Billy Boyle said.
The firm will initially focus on chronic P. aeruginosa infection monitoring, followed by new infection detection. The Cambridge, UK-based company also has a portfolio of breath biopsy tests in development for early lung cancer detection and liver disease, and its breath assays for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and carbohydrate malabsorption are on the market in the UK.