News | August 1, 2023

Prometheus Laboratories Announces Collaboration With Fresenius Kabi On Anser Testing

Prometheus Laboratories Inc. ("Prometheus") today announced a collaboration with Fresenius Kabi to support the validation of and access to Anser therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) services for eligible patients receiving the Fresenius Kabi biosimilar, IDACIO (adalimumab-aacf). Anser testing is utilized by clinicians treating immune-mediated diseases such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) to gain objective information that helps to inform therapeutic decisions. This collaboration will also encompass the Fresenius Kabi biosimilars for tocilizumab and ustekinumab upon market availability.

Although biologics are highly effective for treating immune-mediated diseases, a significant portion of treated patients either don't respond initially or may lose response over time. Non-response and loss of response can result from subtherapeutic drug levels and/or development of anti-drug antibodies to a medication, and TDM has been demonstrated to be a useful and effective tool to optimize treatment management strategies.

Adam Cheifetz, M.D., Director, Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical Center, commented, "For many health care professionals, therapeutic drug monitoring has become standard of care when treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients with biologics and biosimilars. The availability of Anser testing for new agents, like these biosimilars, supports our mission as clinicians to get our patients expediently and cost-effectively into lasting remission."

Alan J Kivitz, M.D., CPI, Founder and Medical Director of the Altoona Center for Clinical Research and Altoona Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center stated, "There is evidence on the clinical and health economic value of therapeutic drug monitoring for biologics and biosimilars in autoimmune diseases. The availability of Anser testing for an adalimumab biosimilar like Idacio will be a welcome addition to the care protocol of our Rheumatoid Arthritis patients."

"We applaud Fresenius Kabi in their forward-thinking approach to patient care", commented Mike Walther, President of Prometheus. "At Prometheus we are driven to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients through precision medicine and are proud to work with collaborators who share our mission to help transform patient care."

About Prometheus Laboratories Inc.
Prometheus Laboratories is a leading specialty clinical laboratory which improves the healthcare journey for individuals with immune-mediated and gastrointestinal diseases by empowering providers to diagnose, treat and help get their patients into remission faster with precision-guided care. For more information, visit https://www.prometheuslabs.com.

About Anser
Anser is a proprietary family of homogenous mobility shift assays used to optimize biologic and biosimilar therapy in autoimmune diseases. The tests simultaneously measures biologic drug and antidrug antibody levels in serum, and are available for therapeutic drug monitoring of adalimumab, infliximab, ustekinumab and vedolizumab. Anser testing was first launched in 2012 and has been cited in over 100 peer-reviewed publications or abstracts. Over 400,000 Anser tests have been performed for about 200,000 unique patients.

About Fresenius Kabi
Fresenius Kabi is a global health care company that specializes in injectable medicines, biosimilars, and technologies for infusion, transfusion, and clinical nutrition. For more information, visit www.fresenius-kabi.com/us

Source: Prometheus Laboratories Inc.