Assurex Health, a leading personalized medicine company focused on neuropsychiatric disorders, has signed its first public-private-partnership (PPP) with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), one of the world’s leading research centres in the area of addiction and mental health and Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital. This joint venture forms AssureRx Canada, Ltd., marking the first international expansion for Assurex Health.

The venture expands the use of GeneSight, a personalized medicine technology that analyzes a patient’s DNA to provide clinicians with an individualized report to help select appropriate treatments for depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, ADHD, and chronic pain.

This partnership has the potential to help millions of Canadians with mental illness avoid trial and error medication prescribing, which is an unfortunate reality for many patients. Recent studies show that only 30 per cent of patients are prescribed a genetically appropriate medication the first time. This is costly to the health care system and to patients who suffer lost productivity, higher absenteeism, and family/relationship issues. With up to 60 million people in the US and Canada taking a psychotropic, ADHD, or analgesic medication, the North American neuropsychiatric pharmacogenomics market is estimated to be in excess of $4 billion.

Assurex Health has a proven track record in the US with its GeneSight panel, a test reimbursed by a number of insurance companies as well as Medicare and Medicaid. In the US, Assurex Health data shows a 70 per cent improvement in depressive symptoms when GeneSight testing is used to predict patient response to antidepressants, and a 28 per cent reduction in health care costs. GeneSight currently provides information on 36 commonly used medications.

“We are thrilled about our collaboration with CAMH and the opportunity to combine our leading pharmacogenomics technology to serve the Canadian market,” said James S Burns, CEO of Assurex Health. “CAMH is a global thought leader in mental health research and treatment. CAMH discoveries will further enhance our GeneSight products, aiding medication selection and augmenting patient responses to antidepressant and antipsychotic medications. We look forward to working together to help the millions of mental health patients who desire better treatment outcomes,” said Burns.

AssureRx Canada has been established as a subsidiary of Assurex Health, with equity ownership by CAMH and Assurex Health, including a Canadian office in Toronto and a certified clinical lab on CAMH premises. A key initial priority of the collaboration includes GeneSight testing of 20,000 Ontario patients for the purpose of improving patient treatment outcomes and reducing mental health care costs in the Province of Ontario.

Further objectives include test validation and clinical studies to enhance GeneSight with new genetic markers discovered by CAMH. These include markers to predict which individuals will experience rapid weight gain after taking anti-psychotic medications, a side effect that impacts many patients. Through this partnership, CAMH will continue research and discovery into genetic markers with AssureRx Canada retaining exclusive rights to commercialize these discoveries globally. The combination of Assurex Health’s development and delivery expertise with CAMH’s research expertise ensures that progress in this area of personalized medicine will continue to grow for US and Canadian mental health patients.

“This unique partnership combines CAMH’s research discoveries of genetic markers with Assurex Health’s expertise in developing, validating and bringing new psychiatric pharmacogenomics markers to market,” said Dr Catherine Zahn, MD, president and CEO, CAMH. “We believe that this collaboration will promote the use of personalized medicine in psychiatry to help both doctors and patients experience a smoother process and improve health care for Canadians who need medications for mental health disorders.”