SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mirvie, a pioneer in predicting unexpected pregnancy complications, today announced data presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine 42nd Annual Pregnancy Meeting (SMFM 2022) demonstrates the Mirvie RNA platform is first to predict preterm birth by revealing the underlying biology of each pregnancy. The breakthrough research shows the platform can predict the condition months before symptoms occur and identify distinct biological pathways driving its development.
Unexpected complications affect one in five pregnancies, with large economic costs and lifelong health consequences for mom and baby.[1],[2],[3] Preterm birth often leaves families in a state of crisis and is the primary driver of childhood morbidity and mortality, frequently resulting in neonatal intensive care for the baby’s survival.[4] Women and doctors lack the tools to understand the underlying causes of preterm birth needed for proactive, preventive, and personalized pregnancy care. As a result, today’s generalized treatment approaches are less effective without the benefit of targeting the underlying biology of the condition.
Research presented during the late-breaking SMFM 2022 session, Early prediction of spontaneous preterm birth in a high-risk population using cfRNA profiling, analyzed tens of thousands of RNA messages from 229 diverse pregnancies using the Mirvie RNA platform. In addition to predicting preterm birth months before symptoms occur, the platform identified distinct underlying biological pathways driving the condition’s development:
- 24 RNA messages related to dramatic and premature changes to the mom’s cervix.
- 11 separate RNA messages involved with amino acid metabolism and growth factor pathways in cases of extremely premature birth.
“These ground-breaking results show the Mirvie RNA platform can reveal the fundamental biological drivers of preterm birth that were only hypothesized before. Early detection of preterm birth and identification of distinct pathways driving it is a fantastic advance. This new knowledge has real potential to improve the application of existing interventions and aid the development of new therapies for preterm birth that directly target its cause,” said Professor Rachel Tribe, Department of Women and Children’s Health, King’s College London and senior author of the research.
The results build on landmark research recently published in Nature demonstrating the Mirvie RNA platform can predict preeclampsia months before symptoms occur. “Like preeclampsia, these results in preterm birth show the Mirvie RNA platform opens a new preventive care window by revealing the underlying biology of pregnancy health and disease,” said Maneesh Jain, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Mirvie. “While this precision medicine approach is now common in many medical fields, pregnancy health has lagged behind for too long. We are dedicated to changing this for the wellbeing of moms and babies and bring this vital information to the field.”
The research was presented by Michal A. Elovitz, M.D., the Hilarie L. Morgan and Mitchell L. Morgan President’s Distinguished Professor in Women’s Health at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Chief Medical Advisor at Mirvie and co-author of the research.
About The Mirvie RNA Platform
The proprietary Mirvie RNA platform combines revolutionary analysis of tens of thousands of RNA messages from the baby, the placenta and the mom, with machine learning. The platform opens a new window into pregnancy health for women to act and their doctors to intervene before unexpected complications become a crisis. It enables proactive, preventive, and personalized pregnancy care for the well-being of moms and babies. Mirvie is conducting ongoing clinical research to validate existing peer-reviewed evidence, to enhance the Mirvie RNA platform performance, and to improve the understanding of other pregnancy complications.
About Mirvie
Mirvie is shaping the future of pregnancy health by providing women and their doctors with an early detection window to intervene before unexpected pregnancy complications become a crisis. One in five pregnancies is impacted by complications that lead to lifelong health consequences for mom and baby. The proprietary Mirvie RNA platform uses a simple blood test to reveal vital information about a pregnancy’s unique biology and detect complications months before they occur. The idea for Mirvie was sparked by the personal experience of one of the founders whose daughter was born prematurely. Mirvie’s team of world-class scientists and entrepreneurs have brought to market category-first, non-invasive tests in both women’s health and in early cancer detection, used by millions today. Founded in 2018, Mirvie has raised more than $30 million in early-stage financing from top-tier investors, including Khosla Ventures, and Mayfield Fund. Mirvie is based in South San Francisco, California. To learn more about Mirvie, please visit www.mirvie.com.
Dr. Elovitz is a scientific advisor to and has an equity interest in Mirvie.
References:
[1]: March of Dimes, Preeclampsia Foundation, IDF, CDC, WHO, UN, Sedgh et al., Reinebrant et al., McNair et al., Mirvie co-morbidity analysis.
[2]: Sedgh G, Singh S, Hussain R. Intended and unintended pregnancies worldwide in 2012 and recent trends. Stud Fam Plann. (2014)
[3]:
- https://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/#setup for aggregate MDC14 and MDC15-related costs
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11362/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK11362.pdf
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28708975/
- https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/pop.2009.12303
- https://healthcostinstitute.org/images/pdfs/iFHP_Report_2017_191212.pdf
- https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2019/01/cesarean-delivery-on-maternal-request
- All costs adjusted to 2020 dollars via https://www.in2013dollars.com/Medical-care/price-inflation/
- EU grossed up from US based on https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Government_expenditure_on_health and https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData with EU27 being 31% of total US health expenditures ($1.1T vs. $3.6T)
[4]: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preterm-birth
