Angle

ANGLE plc is a medical diagnostics company established in 1994 by Andrew Newland, who currently serves as Chief Executive Officer. Newland, who holds an MA in Engineering Science from the University of Cambridge and is a qualified Chartered Accountant, leveraged over three decades of experience in technology-based businesses and two decades in medical diagnostics to found the company. His background includes corporate finance and advisory roles for high-technology firms in the US and UK with KPMG, as well as founding other medical and nutraceutical companies like Acolyte Biomedica and Provexis.

The company is focused on the liquid biopsy market, specifically for oncology applications. Its core business revolves around the Parsortix® PC1 System, a platform technology designed to capture and harvest intact, living circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from a simple blood sample. This is significant because CTCs, cells that detach from a primary tumor and enter the bloodstream, play a crucial role in metastasis, which is responsible for the vast majority of cancer-related deaths. The Parsortix system employs a patented microfluidic cassette to isolate these rare cells based on their size and deformability, a method that is independent of cell surface markers, allowing for the capture of a wider variety of CTCs.

ANGLE's business model is two-pronged, encompassing both product sales and clinical services. The products division sells the Parsortix instrument, single-use cassettes, and associated consumables to independent cancer research centers and laboratories. The clinical services division, operating out of GCLP-compliant laboratories, partners with pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. These services include developing custom assays and conducting clinical trial testing to support drug discovery and development, with a view to creating companion diagnostics. A significant milestone was achieved when the Parsortix PC1 Clinical System received De Novo clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for capturing CTCs from patients with metastatic breast cancer, the first-ever clearance for such a device. This allows researchers and clinicians to perform repeat, non-invasive biopsies to monitor disease progression and analyze the harvested cells for genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic information, guiding personalized treatment decisions.

The company collaborates with major pharmaceutical firms, such as AstraZeneca and Eisai, to develop and validate new cancer assays. For instance, projects with AstraZeneca have focused on developing an androgen receptor (AR) assay for prostate cancer and a DNA Damage Response (DDR) assay for multiple cancer types. These collaborations not only provide revenue but also validate the technology's utility in developing targeted therapies and companion diagnostics, potentially accelerating regulatory approval and market adoption for new drugs.

Keywords: liquid biopsy, circulating tumor cells, CTCs, cancer diagnostics, Parsortix, oncology, personalized medicine, medical diagnostics, Andrew Newland, microfluidics, cell separation, cancer research, drug development, companion diagnostics, FDA clearance, metastatic breast cancer, non-invasive biopsy, pharma services, clinical laboratories, cancer monitoring