Castle Biosciences, Inc. and SciBase Holding AB are joining forces to develop diagnostic tests for dermatologic diseases utilizing SciBase’s Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy technology.
The initial goal of the collaboration is to advance the development of a diagnostic test that predicts flares in patients diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (AD).
Agreement Details
Under the collaboration and license agreement, the Companies will jointly explore and develop various clinical indications related to dermatologic diseases. SciBase’s initial territory will be the EU, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Japan and South Korea, while Castle Biosciences’ initial territory will be North America.
Assuming development success, SciBase will receive a single-digit royalty percentage on the Castle gross margin as well as a low double-digit percentage mark-up on product sales to Castle. SciBase will also receive a milestone payment of 5 million U.S. dollars when Castle sales reach 50 million U.S. dollars annually.
While the development agreement calls for sharing of development costs, SciBase will be deferring its clinical development costs for the initial indication of pre-symptomatically predicting flares in patients diagnosed with AD, with reimbursement being made from future royalty and milestone payments.
Extends Opportunities
“We have been successful in developing several tests that enable clinicians to improve treatment plan decisions for their patients who have dermatological needs. Entering into this collaboration with SciBase extends our opportunity to bring additional solutions to these same dermatological clinicians,” says Derek Maetzold, Chief Executive Officer of Castle Biosciences, in a news release.
“In the projected field of use for AD flares specifically, there could be up to 24 million patients in the United States. The majority of patients who are on maintenance treatment unfortunately experience flares and therefore, have rescue treatment plans. The intent of this initial development program is to identify a test that can pre-symptomatically predict flares and, thus, enable patients to initiate rescue treatment plans to minimize or altogether avoid a flare.
“We are excited about the technology that SciBase has developed to date and the opportunity to leverage this technology to advance the care of patients with dermatological diseases. We believe this is a good fit for us, with our existing commercial portfolio of tests in skin cancers, as well as our pipeline test in development for use in patients diagnosed with moderate-to-severe AD who are seeking systemic treatment—the majority of which are managed by the same dermatological clinician,” he says.
