Takeda and the EU’s Innovative Health Initiative have announced a €38m project aimed at improving early intervention in Crohn’s disease.
The “first-of-its-kind” INTERCEPT study will use biomarkers to intercept the disease’s development in high-risk individuals, with the goal of preventing the symptoms ever developing.
Crohn’s disease is one of the two main types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which affects approximately three million people in Europe.
Alongside symptoms such as persistent diarrhoea and abdominal pain, patients are also at an increased risk of serious complications, and almost 50% require surgery within ten years of diagnosis.
Biomarkers, which are measurable substances found in body fluids, are already used in inflammatory conditions including type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis to detect the earliest stages of disease before symptoms begin.
There is growing evidence that this approach could be used in Crohn’s disease but, while candidate biomarkers have been developed for the condition, they have not been validated across multiple populations.
INTERCEPT will aim to verify and clinically validate a panel of biomarkers and build a blood risk score that can identify those at a high risk of developing Crohn’s disease within five years after initial evaluation.
The project will recruit 10,000 healthy first-degree relatives of Crohn’s disease patients from seven European countries, and the 80 individuals at the highest risk of developing the condition will participate in a trial aimed at preventing “full-blown” disease development through an established and effective medical treatment.
Takeda’s chief medical officer, Awny Farajallah, said: “Biomarkers are key to future research and have the potential to revolutionise the treatment landscape for IBD.”
The initiative will see 21 collaborative partners from Europe, North America and South Korea join forces.
Farajallah said: “At Takeda, we are… excited to join forces with the Innovative Health Initiative with the aim of transforming the treatment of Crohn’s disease.
“In intercepting Crohn’s disease, we face complex scientific challenges that no one organisation can address alone. Our collaboration will unite public and private sector expertise and resources to more efficiently advance Crohn’s research and potentially benefit IBD patients.”
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