Mentis Cura AS signs agreement in Japan for cloud-based dementia diagnostics

Tokyo Japan and Oslo Norway, 17 December 2018. Mentis Cura AS (MCAS) and Nihon Medi-Physics (NMP) today announced the signing of an exclusive partnership agreement for the development, commercialization and sales of EEG analysis software for the Japanese market. In the agreement MCAS will be responsible for clinical development and regulatory clearance for the EEG analysis software, and NMP will be responsible for its exclusive commercialization in Japan. The EEG analysis software is an EEG diagnosis which has been developed by MCAS as an achievement of more than 14 years research in the Nordic countries. Through the long term prospective clinical research, MCAS has established a proprietary EEG database, and by use of artificial intelligence technology, successfully established algorithm to distinguish Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) from Dementia with Lewy Body (DLB) by analyzing EEG.

“We are very pleased to be able to enter into partnership with NMPs, a leading Japanese provider of SPECT and PET based radiopharmaceutical products for the diagnosis of various forms of dementia in Japan” says Mr. Jan Fikkan, Executive Chairman of the Board of MCAS. “With its unique experience and extremely robust nationwide infrastructure, we believe NMP is the most ideal partner to deliver our product to doctors who are dedicated to provide accurate diagnosis in non-invasive form”

Hisashi Shimoda, Representative Director and President of NMP says “Providing digital technology based medical solution service is one of our new core business strategy and we believe that entering partnership with MC will strongly accelerate our strategy. We are fully committed to grow our business by providing comprehensive medical service utilizing digital technology in various target area.”

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About Mentis Cura AS. Mentis Cura AS is a Norwegian headquartered company with a R&D facility in Reykjavik Iceland and a commercial entity in Japan. Its core business is to develop machine learning based EEG diagnostic software for various neurological diseases, including Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease, Front-temporal Dementia, Huntington Disease and ADHD. The company is utilizing its proprietary machine-learning techniques on their database with more than 3000 patients with 10 years follow-up to create algorithm based diagnostic products measuring the function of the brain. The products in the pipeline are in various stages of development and the most mature product is in routine clinical use in Iceland as Class 1 CE mark product.

About Nihon Medi-Physics.

Nihon Medi-Physics is a Japanese top manufacturer of radioactive medicine who are dedicated in R&D and manufacturing of the radioactive medicine as well as to maintain its stable supply. Neurology is a key focus area and provides diagnosis such as DaTSCAN injectable and VIZAMYL injectable. By capitalizing our technological capability and credence cultivated over the years through nuclear medicine diagnosis in Japan, we aim the early realization of the innovative business beyond our existing business; “Realization of theranostics”, “Utilization of digital technology” and “Becoming the leading company of nuclear medicine in Asia”. We are committed in creating the corporate value sustainably to contribute to the society. Please visit our website for more information. (https://www.nmp.co.jp/eng)

About Dementia with Lewy Body (DLB).

DLB is the second most common type of neuro degenerative dementia after AD, and it relates to dementia associated with the presence of Lewy bodies, abnormal deposit of protein called alpha-synuclein, in the brain which affects patient’s behaviour, cognition and mobility function.

DLB affects up to an estimated 15-20% of all dementia patients, however, there are many overlapping clinical symptoms between AD and DLB, and DLB is considered to be a difficult type of dementia to diagnose.

Under the most recent DLB diagnosis criteria (2017), dopamine transporter scintigraphy, MIBG myocardial scintigraphy and polysomnography are accepted as indexical biomarker.

About EEG.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is an electrophysiological monitoring method to record electrical activity of the brain, and measures brain function with a temporal resolution of milliseconds. EEG is used in routine clinical practice, and EEG equipment is considered readily available worldwide with a large installed base of existing equipment. The technology is noninvasive, easy to use and represents an affordable alternative to existing dementia diagnostics.