Centogene Extends Global Parkinson’s Disease Study

Centogene N.V. recently announced it has extended the Rostock International Parkinson’s Disease (ROPAD) Study. Having recently met the milestone of recruiting and performing genetic testing of 10,000 participants, the study now aims to recruit and test an additional 2,500 patients by the end of 2021 – helping to generate insights into one of Centogene’s key prioritized diseases. Based on initial findings, the study will focus its efforts on 40 sites across 11 countries, including Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the US.

Prof. Peter Bauer, Chief Genomic Officer at Centogene, said “We recently reached a significant study milestone, but this is just the beginning. There are several steps ahead that need to be taken to get patients the solutions they need. By extending this study and recruiting additional patients, we will be able to unveil deeper data on Parkinson’s disease genetics, diagnose patients earlier, and accelerate personalized Parkinson’s treatments.”

In 2018, Centogene entered into a strategic collaboration with Denali Therapeutics for the targeted global identification and recruitment of Parkinson’s disease patients with mutations in the LRRK2 gene. Mutations in LRRK2 are one of the most commonly known genetic causes of Parkinson’s disease. Patients enrolled in ROPAD with an LRRK2 mutation may be eligible for participation in future therapeutic clinical studies, including with Denali Therapeutics, which is developing a small molecule LRRK2 inhibitor for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease in collaboration with Biogen.

The Rostock International Parkinson’s Disease Study (ROPAD) is a global epidemiological study focusing on the role of genetics in Parkinson’s disease. The major goal of the study is to characterize the genetics of PD to establish a better understanding of the disease etiology, diagnosis, and severity.

Centogene utilizes CentoCard, the company’s proprietary, CE-marked dried blood spot collection kit in combination with state-of-the-art sequencing technologies to screen for mutations in LRRK2 and other PD-associated genes. To date, 10,000 participants from around the world have been tested over a two-year period. The study has now been extended in order to recruit and genetically test an additional 2,500 participants.

Patients with mutations in PD genes are offered further clinical assessment in a supplementary study, Lübeck International Parkinson’s Disease Project (LIPAD), conducted at the University of Lübeck, where a detailed phenotyping of participants will be performed. Patients may be offered participation in future interventional clinical studies, including with study partner Denali Therapeutics, which is developing a small molecule LRRK2 inhibitor for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease in collaboration with Biogen.

The ROPAD Study protocol and initial findings were published in December 2020 in the journal Movement Disorders, the official Journal of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33314351/.

Centogene engages in diagnosis and research around rare diseases transforming real-world clinical and genetic data into actionable information for patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies. Our goal is to bring rationality to treatment decisions and to accelerate the development of new orphan drugs by using our extensive rare disease knowledge, including epidemiological and clinical data, as well as innovative biomarkers. Centogene has developed a global proprietary rare disease platform based on our real-world data repository with over 3.9 billion weighted data points from approximately 600,000 patients representing over 120 different countries as of December 31, 2020.

The company’s platform includes epidemiologic, phenotypic, and genetic data that reflects a global population, and also a biobank of these patients’ blood samples. Centogene believes this represents the only platform that comprehensively analyzes multi-level data to improve the understanding of rare hereditary diseases, which can aid in the identification of patients and improve our pharmaceutical partners’ ability to bring orphan drugs to the market. As of December 31, 2020, the Company collaborated with over 30 pharmaceutical partners.