Dedicaid has built an AI-based clinical decision support software (CDSS) platform that produces indication-specific CDSS applications from available datasets
Telix Pharmaceuticals to buy Austria-based Dedicaid. (Credit: DeepMind on Unsplash)
Telix Pharmaceuticals has entered into an agreement to acquire Austria-based Dedicaid, a spin-off of the Medical University Vienna, to accelerate the development of its artificial intelligence (AI)-based Telix AI platform.
Dedicaid has built an AI-based clinical decision support software (CDSS) platform. It produces indication-specific CDSS applications from existing datasets for use with positron emission tomography (PET) and other imaging modalities.
The purchase price is made up of an upfront payment of €1.1m in the form of equity and an additional earn-out payment of €1.1m payable in cash or equity at Telix Pharmaceuticals’ discretion, subject to the achievement of regulatory approval in the US.
After the acquisition, Telix Pharmaceuticals will be the owner of all intellectual property associated with the Dedicaid AI platform.
The acquisition will help the Telix AI platform add predictive capabilities in addition to the imaging analysis module, which is being developed in partnership with US-based Invicro. The module automates the classification of lesions to enhance efficiency and standardisation in the imaging workflow.
With this acquisition, Telix Pharmaceuticals will be able to quickly produce CDSS applications that complement the radiopharmaceutical pipeline of the company.
Telix Pharmaceuticals chief scientist Michael Wheatcroft said: “This acquisition provides Telix with a powerful AI development platform that greatly enhances our ability to rapidly generate new applications from clinical imaging data.
“These applications have the potential to assist clinicians in predicting disease progression and treatment response, thus supercharging and differentiating Telix’s AI offering.”
Dedicaid is said to have trained each CDSS application to predict outcomes like the disease severity, the risk to the patient, and/or inform treatment decisions.
According to Telix Pharmaceuticals, the AI platform has a Dedicaid-developed AutoML (automated machine learning) engine, which is a zero code solution, to lower the time, cost, and level of expertise required to build, test, and validate new CDSS applications.
Dedicaid CEO and co-founder Thomas Beyer said: “We have built the Dedicaid platform with the mission of enriching medical imaging with artificial intelligence in order to help clinicians navigate the complex task of diagnosing and treating cancer and deliver state-of-the-art patient care.”
Upon completion of the transaction, Telix Pharmaceuticals plans to complete validation activities and regulatory submissions like US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) and CE Mark (Europe) for the AI platform as a ‘software as a medical device’ during this year.