MRF-Funded Biomarker Timeline

Here is our 2025 - 2026 timeline to ensure we achieve widespread adoption of our myelin repair biomarker. This illustrates how we are moving our MRF-funded development of cutting-edge biomarker assays from academic labs all the way to commercial usage by pharma companies developing MS treatments. An assay is the robust and reproducible procedures that are key to providing the biomarker data / readout that pharma requires of a successful biomarker.

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This path from academic lab to commercial pharma usage is another attribute / activity that sets MRF apart. Most medical non-profit research efforts don’t fund biomarker research and those that do, stop after step 1, with the hope that pharma will take it from there. MRF knew that to ensure widespread use of our biomarker, we needed to perform the testing and validation steps necessary to build pharma trust and accelerate adoption.

Building Pharma Trust, Ensuring Success

MRF has always known that we cannot operate in a vacuum if we are to achieve our goal of widespread adoption of our myelin repair biomarker. To that end, at the outset of our biomarker effort we identified the steps necessary to ensure our process was comprehensive, collaborative, and perhaps most importantly, trusted by pharma.

We’ve funded 41 research studies to identify a biomarker and verify a clear myelin repair signature. Once those key steps were completed, we knew we could accelerate pharma adoption if our team did the work to optimize and validate the assays we developed to find / evaluate the biomarker, and then commercialized that assay for wider use, with the end goal of having pharma send their samples for testing (both initially, and long term on a commercial basis).

Creating Awareness, Gaining Important Recognition

At the same time we have been conducting this research and testing / validation work, we created an awareness campaign to ensure pharma knew about MRF’s biomarker science and progress:

• We identified the right decision makers in companies with myelin repair research programs and scheduled 1:1 meetings to share data as it became available.
• Scientists that we fund make presentations and exhibit posters at MS Scientific meetings attended by pharma. They also publish papers in scientific journals read by pharma.
• In 2024, prior to the largest annual MS scientific meeting, MRF conducted a Myelin Repair Biomarker Symposium to discuss our scientific findings, with more than two dozen pharma companies in attendance.

Amazing Potential of Our Myelin Repair Biomarker

Biomarkers are essential tools used in drug development and treating patients. Our biomarker has the potential to accelerate the development of all MS myelin repair / neuroprotective treatments – both those currently in development and future programs. And it doesn’t stop there. We’re exploring the applicability of our biomarker to help with drug development for other neurological diseases such as ALS, Long COVID, and NMO.