IXICO plc

("IXICO" or the "Company")

Launch of IXIQ.Ai Deep learning AI-based platform

The next generation of IXICO's novel AI platform with proven benefits, providing more sensitivity, accuracy and flexibility in CNS trials

IXICO plc (AIM: IXI), the medical imaging advanced analytics company delivering intelligent insights in neuroscience, announces the launch of IXIQ.Ai, a novel platform for brain segmentation based on convolutional neural networks. The platform has been developed and validated in collaboration with IXICO's academic and pharma partners and will be applied to clinical trials from March 2022.

IXIQ.Ai provides IXICO's development engineers with an agile infrastructure to enable efficient and rapid deployment of analysis solutions ("plugins") for specific therapeutic indications or brain regions. IXIQ.Ai analysis is performed on a MRI scan to segment the brain structure relevant to a specific central nervous system ("CNS") indication. The platform is pre-trained on IXICO's database of clinical trial and natural history datasets across several CNS indications, which has benefited from machine learning improvements developed over the past 10 years. Based on the IXIQ.Ai platform infrastructure, plugins can be trained with a reduced number of highly curated datasets to obtain an optimised solution for a specific segmentation problem. IXIQ.Ai will include pre-developed and validated plugins for applications in Huntington's disease ("HD") and Alzheimer's Disease ("AD").

Scientific presentations with IXICO's academic and pharma partners have shown benefits of IXIQ.Ai over widely used brain imaging tools in three areas:

1.            Sensitivity to smaller treatment effects - every datapoint matters in efficacy analysis of imaging endpoints to increase the ability of detecting a treatment effect and, ultimately, to manage trial size, development time and costs; thereby improving overall efficiency in running clinical trials. The IXIQ.Ai platform increases the amount of usable data by 10%-20% on standard brain regions and can more than double it for challenging brain regions when compared to widely used tools, enabling the detection of proportionally smaller treatment effects without increasing trial size [1, 2].

2.            Accuracy that enables patient-level decision making - a move towards precision medicine, as well as increasingly sophisticated drug candidates and administration modes in neuroscience, encourage applications of brain volumetry that drive individual patient decisions. Moving away from group-level statistics increases the requirements on accurate and reliable measurements at the patient level. Compared to widely used tools, IXIQ.Ai reduces volume error to manual expert segmentations by up to 80%, enabling more accurate patient-level decision-making. IXIQ.Ai provides measurements in real-time, enabling quick turnarounds in critical eligibility decisions [3, 4].

3.            Flexibility to adapt to customized trial needs - using an analysis solution tailored to specific patient populations or brain regions, enables greater accuracy compared to one-size-fits-all solutions. IXIQ.Ai can be flexibly adapted to a specific patient population by using only a small number of highly curated training cases, offering a customisable solution to address specific trial needs [3].

The launch of IXIQ.Ai  is scheduled to coincide  with the 17^th Annual Huntington's Disease Therapeutics Conference:  A Forum for Drug Discovery & Development - 28^th Feb - 3^rd March, Palm Springs, CA, where IXICO is presenting with  pharma and academic partners on the application of the platform in HD imaging. Further validation of the AD workstream will be presented at the 16^th International Conference on Alzheimer's & Parkinson's Diseases - 15^th - 20^th March, Barcelona.

These presentations will be made available on the Company's website shortly after the conferences here: https://ixico.com/news-and-resources/events/

Dr. Robin Wolz, Chief Scientific Officer at IXICO, commented: "We are pleased to launch IXIQ.Ai into production and see it used on our first clinical trials and would like to thank our collaborators for supporting our thorough development and validation process. IXIQ.Ai is the next generation of IXICO's technology platform that has been continuously invested in, and developed, across more than 10 years: with novel AI tools like deep learning and increasing numbers of curated datasets at our disposal, we are excited to make available this new platform that enables the accurate and automated measurement of some of the most complex brain structures that play a key role in understanding CNS diseases. Initial applications are focused on areas with a high unmet need, and we are already planning application of the platform across a wider range of indications to enable the provision of insights previously not possible. It is the development and application of validated AI solutions in imaging systems such as IXIQ.Ai which are critical to the delivery of increased accuracy within the clinical development process, whilst simultaneously reducing the cost; a cornerstone of the pharmaceutical industry's continuous efforts to increase the return on investment of drug development and encourage wider efforts to identify disease modifying treatments for devastating diseases such as dementia."   

References:

[1] J. Weatheritt, R. Joules, R. Wolz, D. Rueckert, Fully Automatic AI Segmentation of Subcortical Regions; Neurotherapeutics (2020) 17:S1-S41, page 521.

[2] M. Reinwald, E. B. Johnson, R. I. Scahill, R. Wolz, Using Artificial Intelligence for Fast, Reliable, and Automatic Segmentation of the Thalamus; Neurotherapeutics (2020) 17:S1-S41, page 513.

[3] J. Weatheritt, D. Rueckert, R. Wolz, Transfer Learning for Brain Segmentation: Pre-task Selection and Data Limitations, Communications in Computer and Information Science, 1248, pg 118-30

[4] J. Weatheritt, M. Reinwald, B. Brito, R. Wolz, AUTOMATIC SEGMENTATION USING DEEP LEARNING FOR THE HIPPOCAMPUS, AD/PD 2021: 15th International Conference on Alzheimer's & Parkinson's Diseases.

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About IXICO | Advanced Analytics | Intelligent Insights.

IXICO is dedicated to delivering insights in neuroscience to help transform the advancement of investigational therapies for neurological diseases, such as Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. The Company's purpose is to advance medicine and human health by turning data into clinically meaningful information, providing valuable new insights in neuroscience by supporting pharmaceutical companies across all phases of CNS clinical research. IXICO's goal is to be a leading advocate of artificial intelligence in medical image analysis. 

IXICO has developed and deployed breakthrough data analytics, at scale, through its remote access technology platform, to improve the return on investment in drug development and reduce risk and uncertainty in clinical trials for the Company's pharmaceutical clients.

More information is available on www.IXICO.com and follow us on Twitter @IXICOnews