Successful trade mission to Japan and Korea yields new business opportunities for Sistemic

26 March 2012: Sistemic, UK:  Sistemic Ltd, Glasgow, concluded a successful trade mission to Japan and Korea in February 2012. Verna McErlane, Director of Commercial Operations, presented the company’s miRNA-based approach to a receptive group of businesses and research institutions in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Seoul and Jeonju. The Japan portion of the trip was planned by the Scottish and Japanese offices of Scottish Development International (SDI).

 During the visit, Sistemic met with both existing and potential clients, and participated in a number of seminars and partnering sessions. Verna McErlane, Director of Commercial Operations, Sistemic, explained: “As the trade mission progressed, it became clear that the partnership model for drug development features highly in the plans of the pharma industry there. It was exciting to have the chance to present how the world’s second largest pharma market will benefit from Sistemic’s unique miRNA profiling products and services.”

Sistemic is pursuing an active global expansion plan for the business. Jim Reid, Sistemic’s CEO commented: “Pharma companies are looking to access technologies on a global basis, so it’s important Sistemic is recognised at this level. We are proud to have customers all over the US and Europe, as well as in Australia and Asia Pacific and we look forward to working closely with a number of new partners in Japan and Korea as a result of the trade mission.”

 During the visit, Sistemic presented its SistemQC product for use in cell characterisation and QC. This is of particular interest to anyone working on cell therapies, regenerative medicine and stem cells. SistemQC is a miRNA-based fingerprint approach that provides a powerful and informative way to characterise and monitor cells lines, including stem cells, for identity, purity, safety and differentiation staging. Sistemic also presented details of SistemRNA and how it is used in drug discovery and development. SistemRNA applies a compound-centric approach identifying drug effects by associative changes in miRNA express profiles and its analysis in context. The addition of SistemRNA to the drug discovery toolbox can support strategic decision-making at key stages and maximise asset value.

Verna McErlane added: “The people we met in both countries were very welcoming and interested in innovative tools that can help them in their work. We are following up with a number of companies and planning return visits in June and September.”

For more information about Sistemic and it's products and services, visit: www.sistemic.co.uk

Sistemic Ltd announces Companion Biomarker Program

 29 June 2011: Sistemic, UK:  Sistemic, a global company with expertise in microRNA , has announced the release of it’s new Companion Biomarker program. Extending the company’s existing SistemRNA^TM suite of drug discovery and development tools, the Companion Biomarker program simplifies the benefits of miRNA analysis and profiling to support timely decision making within clinical research. Drug discovery companies will be able to utilize new multiple miRNA biomarkers to determine the efficacy of targeted drugs, in major therapeutic areas and when developing companion biomarker strategies for future clinical development.

 MicroRNA profiling has rapidly become an indispensable technology with a whole catalogue of applications and new opportunities. Companion biomarkers are the most recent extension of the technology and are set to provide valuable clinical data to guide both pre-clinical and clinical studies. The system will use the robustness and specificity of miRNA to identify highly discriminatory biomarkers which, in turn, will guide patient prognosis, the selection of appropriate drug treatment, and monitoring of drug response. 

 For further information on Sistemic’s new Companion Biomarker program, SistemRNA suite, and other Sistemic products and services please visit: www.sistemic.co.uk

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Sistemic’s, SistemRNA™ Platform Selected by Redx Pharma for Drug Development Screening

Glasgow, Scotland, April 06, 2011 / b3c newswire / - Fast growing Sistemic has signed a master service agreement with Redx Pharma, to provide its SistemRNA™ suite of drug development tools, to accelerate Redx Pharma’s preclinical development pipeline, of over 250 new drug candidates. This comes on the back of the successful completion of a project which added significant value to one of Redx Pharma’s lead programmes whilst providing a significant cost saving. The news follows Sistemic’s announcement in February of an 82% increase in sales from the same period a year ago.

The SistemRNA™ approach offers a new way to accelerate drug development pipelines in a cost effective manner through the use of their intelligent and instructive microRNA-based screening platform. SistemRNA™essentially identifies drug effects by associative changes in microRNA expression profiles and their analysis in context against Sistemic’s growing proprietary database of known drug responses, SistemKB™. The compounds are then fully characterised on the basis of indication, mechanism of action, off-target effects and toxicology profile (SistemTOX™).

Sistemic’s, Director of Commercial Operations, Verna McErlane commented “We are absolutely delighted to be expanding our relationship with Redx Pharma and to have been chosen as their in vitro screening partner for their pipeline of over 250 innovative drug candidates. It is great to be involved with companies like Redx Pharma that have the potential to make a real difference to the treatment options that are available today, bringing safer, more efficacious drugs to the market. The SistemRNA™ suite of drug development tools are proving to be an indispensable tool for biotechnology companies that need to rapidly screen their portfolio whilst adding significant asset value to their programmes. Consequently, our approach is gaining wider acceptance from the drug development community, in addition to the cell therapy markets, and we expect this to lead to a number of other high value master service agreements throughout 2011.”

Redx Pharma’s business strategy is to fast-track new drug candidates towards clinical readiness, prior to out-licensing development and commercialisation. The business has raised in excess of £3m in equity rounds and R&D grants since commencing operations at Liverpool’s MerseyBio in mid-2007. Dr. Neil Murray, CEO of Redx Pharma commented, “We have found the Sistemic approach unique and compelling and we look forward to developing a long and mutually beneficial relationship with them where they will help us with our drug discovery programmes, to bring new treatments faster, cheaper and with more chance of success to the market”.

Sistemic’s primary business is focussed on providing innovative microRNA-based problem-solving services and kit-based products to areas of unmet need within Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology markets and the Cell Therapy community. MicroRNAs are seen as the master controllers of a cell and as such Sistemic believe that they are providing instructive information on effects on a whole cell or organism rather than an isolated pathway. This system approach means that the data produced is more indicative of the biology and more diagnostic of actual effect. Sistemic Chief Executive Jim Reid commented, "The broad applicability of microRNA profiling and the unique insight it can give is now becoming more widely accepted. This agreement confirms this developing acceptance and the endorsement from Redx Pharma is a great boost for Sistemic.” In addition to the extensive suite of tools for the drug development sector Sistemic have a range of tools for the Cell Therapy community including SistemQC™, which is used to characterise cells including stem cells, as well as monitoring the QC of production.

 For more information please contact 

Dr. Verna McErlane
Director of Commercial Operations

Phone: + 44 (0)7855 376 358
Email: verna.mcerlane@sistemic.co.uk

Web: http://www.sistemic.co.uk/