Mount Sinai Health System and Renalytix Form Joint Venture, Kantaro Biosciences, To Develop and Scale Production of COVID Antibody Test Kits
Kantaro Biosciences partners with Bio-Techne for manufacturing and global kit distribution; Scaled kit production to enable clinical laboratories to conduct 10M tests per month is planned to begin in July
Mount Sinai Health System (“Mount Sinai”) and Renalytix AI (LSE: RENX) today announced the formation of Kantaro Biosciences, LLC (“Kantaro”), a Mount Sinai venture, to develop and scale production and distribution of a test kit based on the Mount Sinai-developed high-performance serologic assay for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Kantaro has partnered with Minneapolis-based Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) to develop and launch the new kit, with the goal of producing more than ten million patient tests per month by July. The two companies have formed a joint commercialization and distribution team to support the rapid distribution of kits to clinical laboratories in the US and around the world.
Kantaro’s SARS-CoV-2 test kits are designed for use in any authorized clinical testing laboratory without the need for proprietary equipment. The technology underlying the kits was created by a team of internationally recognized scientists and clinicians, including members from the Departments of Microbiology and Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine within the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The original Mount Sinai test was validated in The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Clinical Laboratories, and has been performed on over 30,000 patient samples. The Kantaro test kit, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), builds on this test technology and is designed to measure the presence or absence of anti-COVID-19 antibodies in addition to measuring the titer (level) of antibodies a person has produced. The kit will utilize not one, but two virus antigens, the full-length spike protein, and its receptor binding domain, necessary for viral entry into cells.
Mount Sinai developed the underlying assay in response to the critical needs of thousands of patients within the hospital system, including those who were severely ill and could potentially benefit from convalescent plasma for emergency therapy. Mount Sinai was issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical testing in its CLIA certified laboratory on April 15th. Kantaro plans to seek EUA for the test kit following final validation.
“Antibody testing will be critical to providing patients and governments the essential information they need to help the world economies reopen and begin to recover from COVID-19,” said Florian Krammer, PhD, Professor of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine. “With the launch of Kantaro, we look forward to bringing a kit based on our highly specific and sensitive test to every corner of the globe.” The serological assay developed by Dr. Krammer and colleauges for the screening and identification of human SARS-CoV-2 seroconverters was described in a paper published in Nature Medicine on May 12, 2020.
“We believe that this technology has the potential for providing insight into immunity, and we’re working intensely to develop a quantitative version,” said Carlos Cordon-Cardo, MD, PhD, Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given Professor and Chair of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We expect that future findings will be critical to vaccine development and the development of advanced therapeutics.” Due to the large number of COVID-19 patients who have been treated at Mount Sinai, with over 5,000 patients returning home to date, the Mount Sinai technology has been utilized across a large and highly diverse population.
“This technology reflects our commitment to everyone affected by SARS-CoV-2 and to developing tools for effectively combatting this disease,” said Erik Lium, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Innovation Officer at Mount Sinai. “We believe that the rapid development, scaleup and distribution of these kits, based on the highly accurate Mount Sinai assay, can be a cornerstone in the global battle against COVID-19.”
“Diagnostics are a national strategic priority and we are now witnessing unprecedented cooperation between academic medicine and private industry to innovate,” said James McCullough, Chief Executive Officer Renalytix AI. “There is no doubt we can rapidly and safely advance the science and win the war on COVID by working together through these kinds of partnerships.”
About Kantaro BioSciences
Kantaro Biosciences (“Kantaro”), a Mount Sinai Health System venture, is dedicated to ensuring that diagnostic tests for critical health challenges are accessible. The company provides academically rigorous, validated and results-driven diagnostics to advance the wellbeing of people, communities and society. Kantaro specializes in the rapid scaleup of groundbreaking diagnostic innovations and the creation of partnerships to bring these crucial technologies to market. The company is majority owned and controlled by Mount Sinai. For more information, visit www.kantarobio.com.
About Renalytix AI
RenalytixAI is a developer of artificial intelligence-enabled clinical in vitro diagnostic solutions for kidney disease, one of the most common and costly chronic medical conditions globally. The Company’s products are being designed to make significant improvements in kidney disease diagnosis, transplant management, clinical care, patient stratification for drug clinical trials, and drug target discovery. For more information, visit renalytixai.com
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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