Cogstate wins first Precision Recruitment contract

Cognition testing company Cogstate (ASX:CGS) has secured its first contract win for Precision Recruitment, a new web-based tool for streamlining patient recruitment to clinical drug trials.

The two-year contract is worth a total of US$1.8 million ($1.91 million) in revenue, the company announced. The name of the customer has not been disclosed.

Precision Recruitment is designed to reduce the cost and time associated with recruiting patients to clinical trials involving conditions that cause cognitive impairment, by allowing patients to test and screen themselves at home before being asked to join a trial.

Patients conduct online tests on Cogstate’s web portal and then are asked to join a trial if eligible. If not, they are invited to join Cogstate’s Cognition Registry - a database which tracks changes in cognitive function over time - for availability in future clinical trials.

Cogstate CEO Brad O’Connor said he estimates that patient recruitment delays the average clinical trial by up to five months and that each lost day of a trial costs drug companies at least $600,000 in foregone revenue.

“As drug companies focus their research on halting Alzheimer’s disease in its earliest stages, finding and recruiting the right patients becomes vital,” O’Connor said.

“Drug therapies are now focused on detecting and stopping cognitive impairment in its earliest stages and Cogstate’s sensitive and accurate battery of tests can detect the earliest signs of cognitive decline associated with the Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.”

Besides Alzheimer’s, Precision Recruitment has potential application in trials for drugs treating psychosis, cancer, depression, stroke and a variety of other conditions.

Precision Recruitment launched last month. Cogstate aims to secure contracts with a cumulative value of between $3 million and $6 million during the first year of the testing product’s commercial availability.

Cogstate (ASX:CGS) shares were trading unchanged at $0.255 as of around 2.30 pm on Friday.