Benzinga | Oct 19, 2021 07:30AM EDT

CareDx And Eledon Pharmaceuticals Announce Collaborative Research Agreement

CareDx, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDNA), a leading precision medicine company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers, and Eledon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Eledon") (NASDAQ:ELDN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision therapies that target the CD40 Ligand pathway for use in organ and cellular transplantation, and for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and autoimmune diseases, today announced a collaborative research agreement to use AlloSure to help assess the efficacy of Eledon's investigational AT-1501 in the prevention of rejection in upcoming renal transplantation trials.



"At CareDx, we focus on innovation and working with leaders in the transplant space. With Eledon, we continue this proven strategy by partnering on their AT-1501 development program," said Reg Seeto, CEO and President of CareDx. "This agreement allows us to bring our leading innovative offerings like AlloSure earlier in drug development as Eledon develops the next generation of transplant therapeutics."

In July of this year, Eledon announced that it had received approval from Health Canada to commence human trials of AT-1501 in renal transplantation. The study will be a multicenter, open label trial, in 6 to 12 subjects, to evaluate the safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetics of AT-1501 in de novo kidney transplant recipients. Eledon anticipates initiating the trial in the fourth quarter of this year with interim data read-outs beginning in late 2022.

"This collaboration agreement provides Eledon with access to CareDx's best-in-class technologies," stated David-Alexandre C. Gros, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Eledon. "Our partner's experience with biomarkers and predictive algorithms gives us the opportunity to gather important insights on the potential for longer term allograft survival rates as we advance AT-1501 through clinical development. We are pleased to partner with the market leader in broader transplantation services and look forward to working together towards supporting transplant patients."