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Resonance Health has signed an agreement with Pfizer to undertake a study comparing liver biopsy and other methods of liver fibrosis assessment with the Company’s new MRI-based method of assessing liver fibrosis.

The study, at Austin Health Melbourne is led by Professor Peter Angus, Medical Director, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Head of the Liver Transplant Unit. Professor Angus has a distinguished research history in the field of liver disease.

Ethics approval has been received. The first patient visit is expected in March, and completion of the study anticipated first quarter 2011. The Company will then assess the need for any further development or clinical data and determine the appropriate route to regulatory approval and commercialisation.

The Company’s development activities into an MRI based diagnostic product for liver fibrosis have provided promising results. This new study provides the opportunity to assess product improvements aimed at achieving a higher level of accuracy in distinguishing between the various stages of liver fibrosis and to compare the results with industry standard fibrosis measurements, including a liver biopsy.

Pharmaceutical companies require accurate, reproducible, non-invasive diagnostic tests to assess the performance of drug therapies under development. This provides a large and immediate opportunity for the Company’s fibrosis test.

 Liver fibrosis and cirrhosis are major health problems worldwide and are growing in prevalence. In 2007 nearly 30,000 people in the US died from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis which represented an increase of 3.4% over the previous year. In the UK, liver disease is the only major cause of death still increasing year-on-year and is the fifth major cause of death. The main causes of liver fibrosis are:

• chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection
• excessive alcohol consumption 
• fatty liver disease (non-alcoholic).

Liver fibrosis is a significant predictor of liver cancer. If left untreated, liver fibrosis can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and end-stage liver disease requiring a liver transplant. The gold standard to assess the presence and severity of liver fibrosis has been a liver biopsy, which is invasive, painful and carries a risk of complications including haemorrhage or even death. In addition, the small sample size taken in a biopsy can result in sampling errors and an inaccurate estimate of the stage of the disease.

The development of a liver fibrosis diagnostic product represents a significant opportunity for Resonance Health and this collaboration with Pfizer is an exciting and significant step forward in bringing this test to market.