GlobeNewswire Inc | Jun 2, 2021 08:05AM EDT

June 02, 2021

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., June 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akoya Biosciences Inc., (Nasdaq: AKYA) The Spatial Biology Company, today announced the launch of Advanced Biopharma Solutions (ABS) as a premium service for biopharmaceutical companies interested in adopting multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) workflows and spatial biomarker development in their translational pathology and immunotherapy programs.

ABS is a component of Akoyas broader Clinical Research Program, a strategic initiative which aims to support the implementation of the Companys Phenoptics mIF platform and spatial phenotypic signatures for precision pathology, through partnerships with academic medical centers, contract research organizations (CROs), reference labs, and the biopharmaceutical industry.

ABS leverages the Companys knowledge and leadership in spatial phenotyping to accelerate biopharmaceutical companies quest for accurate predictive biomarkers, with the aim of improving trial design and drug development success rates. Through ABS, Akoyas biopharmaceutical partners can access its deep mIF expertise, custom assay development capabilities, capacity to support clinical trial assays, and image analysis and interpretative skills.

By launching ABS, Akoya is offering its spatial biology expertise to the biopharma industry to enable the adoption of spatial-biomarker informed clinical trial strategies and, we believe, solve some of immunotherapys toughest challenges, said Akoya Chief Executive Officer Brian McKelligon. Our hope is that the partnerships through ABS can catalyze our understanding of tumor immune biology, spatial biomarker discovery and eventually enhance the success of precision medicine.

Immunotherapies are effective in certain subsets of cancer patients, but accurate determination of which patients are likely to respond has been challenging with current biomarker technologies, leading to high clinical trial failure rates and inefficiencies in cancer care. A multi-institutional study of immuno-oncology biomarker modalities, published in JAMA Oncology in 2019, demonstrated that mIF-based spatial biomarkers outperformed other biomarker testing approaches such as gene expression profiling, tumor mutational burden (TMB) assessment, and PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) for predicting patient response to immunotherapy treatment.

Spatial biology is a rapidly emerging scientific discipline that has the potential to elucidate the immune biology of cancer in greater detail by analyzing the spatial architecture of tumor tissue sections and mapping how tumor and immune cells organize and interact within the tumor microenvironment. These insights have implications for streamlining drug development, clinical trials, and biomarker discovery, and are currently being applied to immunotherapy research.

A cutting-edge tool for spatial biology research is Akoyas Phenoptics mIF platform. The platform has been adopted by the top cancer centers and biopharma companies globally, due to its robust spatial phenotyping capabilities and its ability to support large-scale translational and clinical research studies.

Representatives from Akoyas ABS team will be exhibiting at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Virtual Meeting from June 4 to 8 at booth 5067a. More information can also be found at akoyabio.com/advanced-biopharma-solutions.

About Akoya Biosciences

As The Spatial Biology Company, Akoya Biosciences mission is to bring context to the world of biology and human health through the power of spatial phenotyping. The Company offers comprehensive single-cell imaging solutions that allow researchers to phenotype cells with spatial context and visualize how they organize and interact to influence disease progression and treatment response. Akoya offers two distinct solutions, the CODEX and Phenoptics platforms, to serve the diverse needs of researchers across discovery, translational and clinical research. For more information, please visit https://www.akoyabio.com/.

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This press release contains forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. In some cases, such statements can be identified by words such as: may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "project," "potential," "continue," "ongoing" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements include express or implied statements regarding our ability to achieve our business strategies, growth, or other future events or conditions. Such statements are based on our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions about future events or conditions, which are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, includingthe risks and uncertainties discussed in the filings we make from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated in forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on them. All statements herein are based only on information currently available to us and speak only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any such statement.

Investor Contact:David DeuchlerGilmartin Group LLCinvestors@akoyabio.com

Media contact:Michelle LinnBioscribe Inc774-696-3803michelle@bioscribe.com

JAMA Oncology: Paper reference: Steve Lu et al. Comparison of Biomarker Modalities for Predicting Response to PD-1/PD-L1 Checkpoint Blockade. JAMA Oncology. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.1549