Sets new standards of analysis in neurological disease and presents additional future revenue opportunities

12 February 2025 – London and New York City, UK. IXICO plc (AIM: IXI, “IXICO” or “the Company”) a global leader in neuroscience imaging, using its AI-driven platform to help advance therapy research in neurological disorders, today announces, the generation of further evidence verifying the capability of the ‘IXIQ.Ai’ analysis platform to develop and validate imaging biomarkers for Huntington’s Disease (HD),  as part of the Huntington’s Disease Imaging Harmonisation (“HD-IH”) consortium.

HD-IH has passed a significant milestone in HD research by successfully completing the volumetric analysis of over 6,000 MRI datasets within the HD-IH framework.  Using the HD-IH data, the consortium has generated HD-Integrated Staging System (HD-ISS) Stage 1 caudate and putamen ‘cut off values’ compatible with the IXICO platform, used to guide HD research and clinical trial planning.  These tools will allow the community to consider planning interventional trials including people with HD (PwHD) earlier in the disease course before traditional clinical milestones are observed. 

Applying a proprietary deep learning regional segmentation algorithm IXIQ.Ai was able to establish high quality brain region measurements to characterise volumetric changes across the HD-ISS Stages, providing deeper insights into the progression of HD.  Additionally, IXICO is working, in collaboration with Key Opinion Leaders, to provide further evidence for the use of brain volume changes measured with IXIQ.Ai as an alternative trial endpoint to traditional clinical outcomes.

The validation advances HD understanding, provides enhanced tools for imaging biomarkers to the biopharma industry that can be evaluated in PwHD and, supports the broader use of IXIQ.Ai in neurological disease areas.  Such progress enables IXICO to expand its clinical trial biomarker analysis offering and presents future revenue opportunities, both within the HD-IH consortium and with additional commercial biopharma partners.

Robin Wolz, Chief Scientific Officer, IXICO, commented: “HD-ISS provides an evidence-based framework for the biological definition of HD.  The completion of IXIQ.Ai-compatible HD-ISS staging cut-off points is an important achievement in the HD-IH consortium. Analysing the relevant brain volume measures in a highly accurate and automated tool like IXIQ.Ai allows reliable and robust implementation of the staging system in HD clinical trials. With this major milestone, we will focus with our partners to put those measures into clinical trial use and build further evidence towards the use of brain volumetric measures as surrogate endpoints.”

Cristina Sampaio, Chief Medical Officer, CHDI Management, Inc., commented, "It's exciting to see the HD-IH consortium reach this critical milestone in the imaging harmonization plan. The HD-ISS caudate and putamen volume cut-offs are specific for each analytical software platform, and seeing these values become available for the IXIQ.Ai platform is a huge step toward facilitating the generalization of the HD-ISS in defining clinical trial populations.”

---