Owlstone Medical signs service agreement with AstraZeneca to identify breath biomarkers

Diagnostics company, Owlstone Medical, has signed a service agreement with global biopharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, to explore how breath can be used to identify novel biomarkers for personalised medicine applications.

Under the terms of the agreement, Owlstone Medical will provide AstraZeneca with access to its Breath Biopsy services, including development of classification algorithms to identify breath biomarkers for precision medicine applications across asthma and COPD. Through identifying disease phenotypes and treatable traits, it will be possible to explore the underlying heterogeneity of obstructive lung diseases, with the potential to enable the right treatment to be given to the right patient at the right time.

“This agreement with AstraZeneca demonstrates our unrivalled expertise in breath biomarkers,” stated Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical. “Through our Breath Biopsy Services we are well positioned to assist the AstraZeneca team to explore how Breath Biopsy can identify novel biomarkers for asthma and COPD and to optimise their application in precision medicine.”

According to data from the Global Asthma Report (2014)and WHO: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) Factsheet (November 2017), respectively, an estimated 334 million people worldwide have asthma and 251 million suffer from COPD.