BioProspect independent validation trial for Heart Rate Technology
THE ROADHOUSE PHARMACY: BioProspect Ltd (ASX: BPO) has entered into an agreement with the University of New South Wales to undertake the first independent trial of the company’s Heart Rate Technology for the diagnosis of mental health conditions.
The study will be designed to demonstrate that BPO’s Heart Rate Technology can provide the first objective diagnostic tool between the two hypothesised subsets of depression: melancholic and non-melancholic depression.
The study will be conducted at the Black Dog Institute, a world-leader in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of depression, bipolar disorder and suicide.
The principal researcher for the study will be Professor Gordon Parker, Scientia Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales and principal researcher from the Black Dog Institute.
Professor Parker specialises in clinical research into mental health and is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on depression and bipolar disorder.
BPO said that a positive finding that its Heart Rate Technology can provide the first objective diagnostic tool between the two subtypes of depression would be one of the most important findings in mental health research in the past decade.
The company added that validation the technology is sensitive to changes in symptomology, and can be used as a means to determine the effectiveness of the treatment for both melancholic and non-melancholic depression would represent a major breakthrough.
This would make a large impact on the treatment of depression both economically and in terms of producing much better patient outcomes.
“Our group has long focussed on melancholia, viewing it as a separate depressive condition and therefore we have pursued measures differentiating it from other depressive conditions, its causes, and its optimal treatments,” Professor Parker said in BPO’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“If the diagnostic tool under study has specificity in identifying those with and without melancholia we would anticipate distinct advances in pursuing causes and in directing preferential treatments to those with melancholia.”
The study will begin immediately, although BPO indicated that unlike traditional drug trials the study is expected to be of a relatively short duration.
The company anticipates the study will be completed and the findings published in a leading peer-reviewed international publication in the second half of 2015.
BPO will provide quarterly updates as to the progress of the study.