Diadem Announces First Closing of €10 Million Equity Financing for Its AlzoSure® Predict Prognostic Blood Test for Alzheimer's Disease

—CDP Venture Capital and Panakès Partners Leading Equity Financing in Association with Recent €7.5M European Investment Bank Venture Debt Commitment; Additional Venture Funds Expected to Join Equity Round—

—New Funds will Advance Global Development and Commercialisation of the First Blood Test that Can Predict Likely Progression to Alzheimer's Disease Up to Six Years in Advance—

—AlzoSure^® Predict Is CE-IVD Marked and U.S. FDA Breakthrough Device Designated— 

MILAN, March 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Diadem SpA, a company developing the first blood-based test for the early prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD), today announced the closing of the first tranche of a €10 million equity financing. The financing round is led by new investor CDP Venture Capital and existing investor Panakès Partners. The new funding follows the announcement earlier this month by Diadem and the European Investment Bank (EIB) that EIB has granted Diadem a €7.5 million venture loan.

Diadem will use the new funding to continue the global commercialisation and further clinical validation of its AlzoSure^® Predict, a non-invasive biomarker blood test that can identify with high accuracy whether individuals over the age of 50 with signs of cognitive impairment will or will not progress to Alzheimer's disease up to six years before definitive symptoms are apparent. Its utility is supported by clinical data from a large longitudinal study that was the basis for AlzoSure^® Predict's recently gaining a CE-IVD mark and a Breakthrough Device designation from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

"Diadem is an excellent example of innovative enterprise: a unique technology, developed at the University of Brescia, an advanced research center, and offering the opportunity of intervening in the very early stages of the pathological process, when the chances of success of the intervention are greater," comments Enrico Resmini, CEO and General Manager of CDP Venture Capital. "We are very satisfied with our investment in Diadem, which also meets our criteria of social impact and stimulation of research in the life sciences sector."

Diana Saraceni, Founder and Managing Partner of Panakes Partners, said, "We are delighted to renew our investment in  Diadem, whose revolutionary technology has the potential to transform the management of Alzheimer's disease, a devastating condition with enormous costs to the individual and to society. Diadem has made great progress in advancing its AlzoSure technology since our initial investment, generating robust validating clinical data, developing a commercial grade product, obtaining important certifications and awards, and building a foundation for successful global commercialisation in concert with strategic partners. It has emerged as a leader in the important field of novel biomarker diagnostics, and we are proud to co-lead this financing round."

"We welcome the support of these eminent venture capital groups, who share our vision of a world in which early signs of cognitive impairment are a call to action, not a death sentence," said Dr. Gerald Möller, Chairman of the Board of Diadem. "Under Paul Kinnon's exceptional leadership, Diadem will use the funds to further expand the company's global organisation to support our unique prognostic assay that could revolutionize the Alzheimer's field. This funding in conjunction with the recently announced EIB loan agreement will provide Diadem with the capital to support the company as it commercialises AlzoSure^® Predict and builds a successful global enterprise." 

Diadem is developing the AlzoSure^® Predict assay as a simple, non-invasive plasma-based biomarker test to accurately predict the probability that a patient aged over 50 years with cognitive impairment will progress to Alzheimer's dementia. The company's technology uses an analytical method that includes a patented antibody developed by Diadem and designed to bind to U-p53^AZ and its target sequences. U-p53^AZ is a conformational variant of the p53 protein that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of AD in multiple studies. 

For CDP Venture Capital, the operation was overseen by Mario Scuderi and Gregorio Gaspari, respectively co-manager and analyst of the Evolution Fund.

About Alzheimer's Disease 
There are about 50 million people suffering from dementia worldwide. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form and accounts for 60-70% of cases. At present there are no disease modifying treatments for Alzheimer's, and therapies to treat symptoms are limited. There are about 10 million new cases per year, and the incidence is rising rapidly as the population ages. The current total cost of care is enormous--estimated at $1 trillion in the U.S. annually and expected to double by 2030. Currently, diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is slow, inconclusive, invasive and expensive. Development of effective therapies for Alzheimer's has been hindered by the lack of accurate and cost-effective prognostic and diagnostic methods.

About Diadem 
Diadem was founded as a spin-out of the University of Brescia (Italy). The company is developing the first blood-based prognostic test for the early detection of dementia, with a focus on Alzheimer's disease. The lack of accurate, accessible and affordable diagnostic tools is a major contributor to the absence of effective treatments for this devastating condition. As a result, patients are not diagnosed until late in the illness, when effective treatment is no longer possible. Diadem's rapid, accurate and cost-effective blood-based prognostic test makes it possible for the first time to identify patients early in the disease process, when effective interventions and better outcomes are far more feasible. The utility of the approach has been demonstrated in longitudinal clinical studies that were the basis for awarding CE-IVD marking in the E.U. and a Breakthrough Device designation in the U.S. Additional retrospective and prospective clinical trials are ongoing to further validate clinical claims and support widespread adoption and use. Diadem is preparing for commercialisation of AlzoSure^® Predict in collaboration with global strategic partners. The company is also developing AlzoSure^® Confirm, a blood-based diagnostic test for AD that has shown promising results in early studies. For more information, visit diademdx.com/.

About CDP Venture Capital 
CDP Venture Capital is an asset management company (70% owned by CDP Equity and 30% owned by Invitalia) with over 1.6 billion euro of assets under management. It aims to make venture capital a strategic pillar to Italy's economic development and innovation, creating the conditions for a comprehensive and sustainable growth of the venture capital ecosystem. It operates through a series of funds that aim to support start-ups in all their life cycle stages, making both direct and indirect investments. Visit https://www.cdpventurecapital.it/cdp-venture-capital/en/home.page

About Panakès Partners
Panakès Partners is the leading Italian venture capital firm in the Life Sciences sector, with the ultimate goal of providing a better life to people all around the world, by providing both financial and business support to build the next generation of game-changing technology companies in the field of Life Sciences. Panakes invests in ambitious start-ups and SMEs with innovative products globally, with a focus on Europe and Israel. Visit http://www.panakes.it/   

Contacts:                                                                     

Diadem Corporate:   
Diadem   
Paul Kinnon  
CEO   
[email protected]                                        

Diadem Media:
Barbara Lindheim
BLL Partners for Diadem
[email protected] 
+1 (917) 355-9234

CDP Venture Capital SGR
Media Relations
Alessandra Acutis
[email protected]
348 8328308

SOURCE Diadem SpA