Healthcare devices manufacturer Immunovia AB (STO:IMMNOV) announced on Wednesday that Erlangen University Hospital (Erlangen) has become the first cancer centre in Germany to join Immunovia's global network of key opinion leaders in the quest for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

In addition to Immunovia's existing collaborations, Erlangen University Hospital will supply freshly collected blood samples for the final two steps to market of IMMray PanCan-d.

These final two steps towards commercialisation are the verification and validation of the commercial biomarker signature. The blood samples that will be collected, 100 PDAC and additional controls, are from patients referred to surgery with radiologically detected pancreatic lesions.

The Principal Investigator at Erlangen Hospital is Prof Dr Christian Pilarsky, Department of Surgery, Erlangen University Hospital.

According to the company, this collaboration will not only add fresh PDAC (pancreatic cancer) samples and controls to contribute to Immunovia's collection criteria of up to 2,000 fresh samples needed for the remaining process of assuring commercialisation readiness of IMMray PanCan-d, but will also add to genetic variability as well.

Also, being able to gain access to a sufficient number of newly collected samples is essential for finalising the validation of IMMray PanCan-d to launch in Q3 next year.

This collaboration with Erlangen represents the company's first collaboration site in Germany, an important market going forward.

Immunovia offers bioinformatic devices that helps in the diagnosis of cancer, predicting disease progression, and monitoring the therapeutic responsiveness of cancers.