NEW YORK – Neurology diagnostics firm C2N Diagnostics said Wednesday that drugmaker Eisai has agreed to invest up to $15 million in the company.
The investment will support efforts to expand the availability and use of C2N's blood-based biomarker tests for Alzheimer's disease in the US.
The investment follows a 2022 agreement between the two companies to build awareness and develop real-world evidence to support the use of blood-based assays in people living with cognitive impairment.
The C2N Precivity test uses mass spectrometry to measure blood-based biomarkers for detecting the presence of the brain amyloid pathology characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. Eisai's Leqembi (lecanemab) is the second anti-amyloid Alzheimer's drug to be marketed in the US and could soon be the only such drug on the market following Biogen's recent announcement that it will stop selling its anti-amyloid drug Aduhelm (aducanumab) in November.
"We greatly appreciate the dedication and thoroughness Eisai brought to evaluating the value and quality of our advanced diagnostic solutions in the field of brain health," C2N CEO Joel Braunstein said in a statement. "With this financing, we’re building on our history of attracting the highest-quality investors committed to changing the trajectory of Alzheimer’s disease through early detection and treatment and, ultimately, prevention."
"The field of highly accurate blood-based diagnostics is rapidly advancing and expanding," Keisuke Naito, global Alzheimer's disease officer and senior VP at Eisai, said in the statement. "Given the expense and capacity limitations of PET and CSF tests, Eisai is working to support the dementia ecosystem’s growth. The availability of more affordable and minimally invasive diagnostic tools helps support broad access for the management of Alzheimer’s disease."