LONDON (Alliance News) - Avacta Group PLC said Monday it has completed development and validation of a new test for pancreatitis in dogs.
The provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare said the new test uses an algorithm to combine the results of two common blood tests with other symptoms and other information about the dog such as age and breed.
Avacta said its internal validation of the new pancreatitis test performance demonstrated that is has better sensitivity, specificity and predictive capability than the only established test currently available on the market, when tested on confirmed pancreatitis cases clinically diagnosed by vets at a large referral centre in the UK using other techniques such as ultrasound.
The use of an algorithm in testing is the same approach as used in its canine lymphoma blood test.
In order to commercialise the product, Avacta will offer "pay per click" access to the diagnostic algorithm, allowing veterinary laboratories to get an accurate and immediate diagnosis for pancreatitis by submitting the results of two blood tests commonly run in house along with other patient information on-line.
The firm added that in due course the blood tests themselves will also be offered on the Sensipod in-clinic analyser allowing vets to access the same on-line pancreatitis diagnostic.
Avacta said there is a large market for such a product due to the commonality of Pancreatitis, an inflammatory disorder of the pancreas in dogs. The acute form of the disease occurs in around 1.5% of dogs whilst the prevalence of the chronic form is reported to be as high as 30%.
"The performance of our pancreatitis test is excellent and, with the added benefit to the customer of immediate diagnosis from test results run in their own laboratory rather than having to send samples away, we believe our test will be highly competitive in a large market," said Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta.
Shares in Avacta were trading 2.77% higher shortly after the market open Monday, at 1.187 pence per share.
By Alice Attwood; aliceattwood@alliancenews.com; @AliceAtAlliance
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