Diadem and Quest Diagnostics have signed an exclusive US licensing agreement for the former’s AlzoSure Predict Alzheimer's Disease (AD) prognostic technology.

Quest has obtained exclusive rights to the intellectual property of the blood-based prognostic technology to develop, validate and market a laboratory-developed test service for providers and patients in the country.

AlzoSure Predict utilises an antibody (U-p53AZ) for measuring blood levels of a conformational variant of the p53 protein implicated in the pathogenesis of AD.

Its utility is backed by clinical data from a longitudinal study, leading to its designation as a breakthrough device by the US Food and Drug Administration and its CE-IVD marking in the EU.

The non-invasive technology can identify the risk of AD in its asymptomatic and early symptomatic stages with just 1ml of blood.

It can detect people with a high likelihood of developing the disease within a two-year timeframe.

Research has also shown that the technology can distinguish between various types of dementia.

Diadem CEO Paul Kinnon said: “The decade of work by our researchers and collaborators to clinically validate this important technology is bearing fruit as new therapies and growing knowledge about Alzheimer's disease are providing hope that early interventions may slow or stop disease progression.

“We see AlzoSure Predict as a potentially valuable contributor in this effort and view Quest as the ideal collaborator to help make the benefits of the AlzoSure technology widely available to patients and their healthcare providers as part of Quest's quality test portfolio.”