Treating mental illness can be as difficult as it is living with it. Typically, finding the right drugs requires a hefty dose of trial and error, and arriving at the correct therapy can be a long journey that lasts for months or years.
Article continues below
Now a company called Assurex Health is trying to change that. It developed a set of diagnostic tools that could help doctors prescribe the right medication faster and more accurately. The technology is using patients’ own genetic material to study how they will respond to different drug treatments.
Assurex Health, which is based in Mason, Ohio, is a pioneer in a field of research called pharmacogenomics. Doctors use Assurex Health testing kits to swab and collect cells from inside of the patient’s cheek and analyze the DNA information for variants of genes that may affect a patient’s response to antidepressant, antipsychotic, analgesic and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications.
Assurex Health was formed to commercialize patented DNA testing technology from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Mayo Clinic in 2006. The company is licensing the technology.
According to a story in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Assurex Health’s antidepressant and antipsychotic medication test called GeneSight Psychotropic now analyzes how 38 FDA-approved drugs will interact with eight genes. The resulting patient-specific report analyzes 785,000 possible gene variant-drug combinations to help doctors offer the right medicine.
More accurate prescriptions could significantly improve the lives of many patients. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that about one in four Americans over the age of 18—more than 57 million people—suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year. These illnesses cost the economy around $300 billion annually. The Centers for Disease Control says that 11 percent of Americans 12 years and older take an antidepressant medication.
GE Capital sees Assurex Health’s potential. The GE financial arm acted as agent in a $25 million credit facility for the company to increase clinical adoption of its products. GE Capital says the funds will help develop the emerging personalized neuropsychiatric medicine market.
"Our combination of healthcare knowledge and structuring expertise means our customers have access to the capital they need to fund growth and other strategic initiatives,W said Neil Bonanno, senior vice president of Life Sciences for GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services.
Assurex secured a total of $32 million in financing in the latest round. Existing investors in the company include Sequoia Capital, Claremont Creek Ventures and others. ■