Immunovent

Over $1.2 billion is spent on annual allergy testing, but up to 20% of people with allergy symptoms are misdiagnosed.

Why? - We're Looking at the Wrong Areas

Rather than focusing on symptomatic regions such as the nose or mouth, current skin-prick and serum diagnostics examine distal areas for systematic responses. As a result, these tests often fail to properly diagnose allergic reactions that only occur in the local symptomatic regions or diagnose allergies that are not clinically relevant.

Technology

The Local Antibody Mucosal Brush Diagnostic (LAMB-Dx) is a platform technology that allows for accurate detection and diagnosis of diseases, including airborne and food allergies. The first LAMB-Dx product is a local allergy diagnostic that will conveniently and accurately diagnose allergies using a small sample of cells that are painlessly collected with a soft brush from the inside of the nose or mouth. The patented LAMB-Dx uses a proprietary assay to detect antigen-specific IgE from epithelial mucosal cells, which no other test can do. The LAMB-Dx test results can be used to guide targeted patient treatments, such as immunotherapy. Importantly, LAMB-Dx is designed to correctly diagnose the many patients who have results from blood or skin testing which are inaccurate or inconsistent with their symptoms. LAMB-Dx is gentle, rapid and needle-free, making it ideal for the pediatric population. 

Progress

Through clinical data gathered by 4 proof-of-concept studies published in peer-reviewed journals, the utility of the LAMB-Dx test has been demonstrated for both food and respiratory allergies. Currently, Immunovent is optimizing the protocols for patient sample collection, preparation, processing, and testing at a New York City-based biomedical research center and at our laboratory located in the Harlem Biospace. We anticipate commencing larger-scale clinical trials this year and expect an initial launch of our first allergy diagnostic by 2016. For more information, please visit the clinical tab.