MELBOURNE, Australia, Dec. 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Molecular diagnostics company Genetic Technologies Ltd (ASX: GTG; NASDAQ: GENE, the Company), announced today that they have entered into a three-year partnership agreement with mental health company, Taliaz, for the distribution rights of their PREDICTIX products in Australia, New Zealand and the USA (Agreement).

Key Highlights

The Agreement will support GTG to expand its product offering and establish the mental health vertical by harnessing PREDICTIX, Taliazs pioneering decision-support and management platform to optimize patient treatment for mental health disorders. Starting in the field of depression, this genomic-based, Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven antidepressant selection technology, marks GTGs first foray into pharmacogenomics1.

George Muchnicki, GTGs Interim CEO stated: We are incredibly pleased to have partnered with Taliaz to bring their predictive and personalized mental health product to Australia and New Zealand. GTG are at the forefront of providing personalized and predictive products to empower patients to make informed decisions about their health. This distribution agreement is our first external product partnership and our first product within the mental health vertical. Mental health has remained at the forefront of media discussions and government initiatives within Australia, New Zealand and globally due to the ongoing social and economic impact and given the impact from the current global pandemic. We look forward to working closely with the Taliaz team to deliver their product into these markets at this critical time.

The execution of the Agreement is reliant on product regulatory clearance by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA. Once cleared, GTG has committed to providing a minimum distribution of 8,000 tests over the initial three-year term with an associated minimum cost to GTG of $200,000 over the term, inclusive of licencing fees and a percentage based fee per test paid to Taliaz. Subject to the regulatory clearance process, GTG anticipates that PREDICTIX will be made available for sale and distribution in Australia and New Zealand in Q3 FY21 on GTGs existing Consumer Initiated Testing (CIT) platform, with end-customer pricing to be determined but anticipated to be in line with existing GTG product pricing.

PREDICTIX, developed by the private Israeli company, Taliaz, addresses the growing burden on society from depression, with 1 in 10 Americans2 and 1 in 8 Australians3 prescribed antidepressants per year. PREDICTIX enables a more accurate and rapid treatment plan for patients suffering from depression, reducingtreatment costs and the overall associated economic burden.

PREDICTIX is an algorithmic-based decision support tool that can improve todays antidepressant prescribing accuracy by 47%4. Combining DNA testing with AI, PREDICTIX empowers doctors to improve the assessment, treatment, and management of mental health disorders.

The PREDICTIX technology uses AI to analyse multiple data streams, including patients genomic, clinical history and demographic background, providing doctors with a personalized patient report. The report ranks the statistical efficacy and potential side effects of various antidepressant medication based on each patients genetic makeup andhealth record. This helps doctors optimize prescribing decisions for patients diagnosed with depressive disorder, where there is currently a long and painful trial and error period. PREDICTIX is CE-registered and commercially available in the UK, France and Israel, with the process underway for TGA approval.

Dekel Taliaz, CEO and Co-founder of Taliaz said, We are excited to partner with Genetic Technologies, world-leaders in the genetic risk assessment space. This new partnership will support rapid commercialization of PREDICTIX to help more depression sufferers in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, while adding a complementary and advanced mental health solution to GTGs growing suite of DNA tests.

The Agreement strengthens GTGs mission in creating a suite of tests to enable a holistic and predictive health assessment for patients, which can be adjusted to address the individual patient risks and needs. Establishing the first product within the mental health and pharmacogenetic space continues GTGs progress towards being able to offer a highly comprehensive suite of polygenic risk assessment tests via GTGs CIT platform and additional sales and marketing avenues as these are progressed.

This announcement was approved by the Board of Directors of Genetic Technologies Limited.

About Genetic Technologies Limited

Genetic Technologies Limited (ASX: GTG; Nasdaq: GENE) is a diversified molecular diagnostics company. GTG offers cancer predictive testing and assessment tools to help physicians proactively manage patient health. The Companys lead products GeneType for Breast Cancer for non-hereditary breast cancer and GeneType for Colorectal Cancer are clinically validated risk assessment tests and are first in class. Genetic Technologies is developing a pipeline of risk assessment products.

For more information, please visit http://www.gtglabs.com

About Taliaz

Taliaz is revolutionizing the treatment and management of mental health disorders with PREDICTIX. PREDICTIX is a CE-registered product that provides an advanced decision support software for psychiatrists and general practitioners. Harnessing artificial intelligence, PREDICTIX can enable easy, effective and rapid patient assessment, improved prescribing precision and management for a wide range of mental health conditions. Starting in the field of depression, the PREDICTIX Genetics and PREDICTIX Digital products can improve todays prescribing accuracy by up to 47%4.

For more information, please visit predictix.ai.

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Genetic Technologies Secures US and ANZ Distribution Rights for PREDICTIX - BioSpace