Artificial intelligence is reshaping oncology, and ImpriMed is at the forefront of this transformation. With its AI-powered Personalized Prediction Profile (PPP), ImpriMed is redefining cancer treatment for pets by predicting drug responses with unmatched accuracy. The company’s innovative approach integrates flow cytometry, genetic markers, and functional precision medicine, enabling veterinarians to make informed decisions that extend pet lifespans and enhance treatment outcomes.

Now, ImpriMed is leveraging its veterinary expertise to make a bold transition into human oncology, applying its AI-driven technology to blood cancers like multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia. In this exclusive BioPharma Boardroom Q&A, Ilona Holcomb, PhD, Director of Bioscience at ImpriMed, Inc., shares insights into the science behind their AI models, their real-world impact on oncology, and the company’s ambitious plans for global expansion.

Can you elaborate on how the Personalized Prediction Profile works in selecting effective cancer treatments for pets? 

ImpriMed’s flagship service, the Personalized Prediction Profile (PPP), is a comprehensive report containing advanced flow cytometry, genetic markers, and our AI-based drug response predictions for canine lymphoma and leukemia patients. Specifically, this report includes our immune-subtype determination and prognostics, predictions for CHOP – veterinary oncology’s “gold” standard, a first-line, multi-agent chemotherapy protocol – and single drug predictions for 13 of the most commonly prescribed anticancer drugs. ImpriMed’s test assesses these anticancer therapies directly on each patient’s live cancer cells and determines the personalized responses with our proprietary AI model for drug predictions, which combines the collective test results with patient-specific data such as medical history and breed and incorporates training from our extensive database of real-world clinical outcomes collected from thousands of canine lymphoma and leukemia patients. 

ImpriMed’s ongoing collaboration with veterinarians across more than 40 U.S. states, Canada, England, and France uniquely enables us to continue growing this data set. To date, we’ve provided services to 8,000+ blood cancer patients and completed 20,000+ blood cancer tests, all of which contribute to training our AI model. 

The end result, delivered to veterinarians in seven days, is a personalized report predicting the most effective treatments for individual cancer patients before treatment begins. This highly tailored, individualized approach facilitates faster, cost-efficient, and effective treatment from day one, eliminating the need for traditional exploratory or “wait-and-see” methods, which are both costly and time-consuming. 

What key factors differentiate ImpriMed’s platform from other AI-driven solutions in veterinary oncology?

ImpriMed is currently the only veterinary oncology company leveraging AI and anticancer drug testing to facilitate personalized drug response predictions. These predictions are not based on a single assay, but a comprehensive profile that includes drug sensitivity testing, flow cytometry, and genetic testing. 

Our functional precision medicine approach directly tests each patient’s live cells, unlike other solutions that focus solely on biomarkers or genetic information. This functional approach is possible due to our proprietary transport medium, which enables us to receive live cancer cells in our lab for comprehensive testing. 

Additionally, ImpriMed offers oncological diagnostic support services such as flow cytometry, PARR, Multidrug Sensitivity Genotyping (MDR1), and digital cytology to our veterinarian partners. These broad-reaching services have allowed us to fully commercialize and continue developing our innovative technology while expanding our business. Every case and treatment outcome continuously trains our AI models, creating a cycle of improvement and more accurate treatment predictions over time. Other AI-driven solutions offered in the market mostly focus on listing biomarkers with varying degrees of clinical evidence, rather than extensive real-world results like ImpriMed.

How has the adoption by over 200 veterinary oncologists and 130 hospitals impacted treatment outcomes for pets?

ImpriMed has seen remarkable success in improving treatment outcomes for pets. To summarize, oncologists who integrated ImpriMed’s PPP into their practices reported:

• Extension of their patients’ lifespans and a better quality of life
• Decrease in treatment costs by eliminating ineffective drugs
• More clients treating their pets with confidence
• An improved reputation as a leader in innovative veterinary care

In collaboration with these veterinarians, our AI predictions have contributed to enhanced clinical decision-making, decreased treatment costs, and optimized care delivery timelines. 

Our recent study published in Frontiers in Oncology, for example, confirmed that our technology can significantly improve patient survival and response to treatments. In the study, veterinary oncologists who used one of our top three predicted drugs showed that patients with relapsed B-cell lymphoma had a 4-fold increase in Complete Response (CR) rates. The median duration for CR was 200 days – that’s more than six months! – and a median survival time of 270 days – that’s nine months! This validates the results we’ve seen through work with our veterinarian partners, many of whom list decreased treatment costs and the potential to extend patient lifespans as ImpriMed’s primary benefits. Additionally, in our recent survey of veterinary oncologists, 95% reported satisfaction with our report content and services overall. Moreover, 80% agreed that ImpriMed helps clients better understand treatment options through our personalized care plans, encouraging more of their clients to opt for treatments.

Could you share insights into the challenges faced when transitioning your expertise from veterinary oncology to human oncology?

Transitioning from veterinary to human cancer applications required several key developments, beginning with adapting our existing AI-driven prediction technologies to specifically address human blood cancers such as multiple myeloma (MM), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). While key relationships between canines and humans exist for these cancers, the differences require species-specific solutions, which we have addressed with our targeted software and AI models for human-specific cancer responses. One of these technologies is an innovative software-as-a-medical device for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM), which predicts treatment outcomes without biological samples. For AML and NHL, we refined our predictive models to better address these specific cancers by optimizing drug sensitivity testing to cover a broader range of anticancer drugs.

Like our work in the veterinary oncology space, we also needed to develop an extensive clinical database – an essential step in developing precision medicine services that integrate drug sensitivity testing with machine learning models. To achieve this, we partnered with major hospitals to collect human clinical samples and patients’ medical records. Accordingly, our transition to human oncology also included clinical validation studies. These results confirmed that AI predictions for human cancers could improve survival and treatment outcomes, similar to the results we’ve seen in veterinary applications. 

What makes your approach to blood cancers like multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia unique in the human healthcare space?

ImpriMed’s human precision medicine services uniquely utilize an innovative combination of ex vivo drug sensitivity testing and machine learning to guide therapeutic decisions. This approach directly leverages years of expertise from veterinary oncology, accelerating the development of predictive models for human cancers. 

Early data from clinical studies and real-world applications has shown promising results, such as our study on AI-driven NDMM technology published in npj Precision Oncology. This technology predicts the probability of early disease progression and stratifies patients into high vs. low risk subgroups, resulting in a proven ability to predict NDMM patient responses and/or survival time following first-line treatment. These findings indicate that our AI-driven technology can optimize first-line treatment selection for transplant-ineligible NDMM patients. We have also observed similar outcomes with our AML and NHL technology, which predict patient drug responses and facilitate more precise treatment protocols by evaluating drug sensitivity tests for 21 and 18 anticancer drugs, respectively. We anticipate even greater accuracy and effectiveness in our predictions as we gather more patient data and continue evolving our AI algorithms. 

Can you explain the role of your proprietary transport medium and robotic platform in maintaining the viability of live cancer cell samples?

We have conclusive data that our proprietary transport media is essential for preserving the viability and vitality of live cancer cells during transport to and culturing in our lab, allowing comprehensive testing as part of our functional precision medicine approach. 

ImpriMed also employs high-throughput robotics-assisted testing processes that reduce hands-on time and are less destructive to the live cancer cells to enhance efficiency and maintain the accuracy of results.

What are ImpriMed’s future plans for scaling its AI-driven technology globally or expanding its therapeutic focus?

ImpriMed was founded with a vision to provide immediate solutions for cancer patients who need effective treatments today. Since our founding in 2017, we have continually refined our technology and worked closely with our 250+ veterinary hospital partners to meet critically unmet needs in veterinary oncology – all while building a platform with cost-effective scalability and translational applications to human oncology. We intend to continue expanding our veterinary portfolio through new and expanded services, such as last year’s highly-requested launch of our standalone drug response predictions (DRP) assay and future efforts regarding mast cell tumors and feline inflammatory bowel disease discrimination versus alimentary lymphoma. And, of course, we are also applying our AI technology to complex human blood cancers. From partnering with a growing network of hospitals, pharmaceutical, and university partners to targeting approval from both the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the U.S. FDA, ImpriMed is primed to offer commercial services in both countries and enter the rapidly growing cancer precision medicine market and arm healthcare providers with technology that optimizes treatment strategies. 

Our collaborative work also extends to biopharmaceutical companies through a suite of customizable contract research organization (CRO) services. These services, adapted from our proprietary “live-cell” technology, support the development of novel drug compounds by directly testing the compounds on patients’ live cancer cells. Our live-cell-based CRO services aid successful drug development across both animal and human spaces, from preclinical to Phase III trials, by helping to accelerate and optimize the path to successful treatments. We hope to continue expanding our CRO partnerships alongside our commercialized technology, enabling us to carry out our mission of redefining the future of oncology treatment through personalized, effective solutions for patients everywhere.