NEW YORK – The Indonesian government plans to launch a nationwide pharmacogenomic program to tailor treatment for leprosy using a test from NalaGenetics, a genetic testing startup based in Singapore.
NalaGenetics, which spun off from the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research's Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR GIS) to develop genetic testing solutions for Southeast Asian populations, said Thursday that it will launch the program in Indonesia in the fourth quarter of this year using its PGx1301 diagnostic kit.
The program builds on a five-year pilot in Papua, Indonesia, during which regional laboratories used NalaGenetics' PGx test to screen new leprosy patients for a particular genetic variant, the HLA-B*13:01 allele. Patients with leprosy who have this variant and are receiving the antibiotic dapsone are at increased risk of a rare but potentially fatal hypersensitivity syndrome.
Since implementing this test, there have been near-zero cases of dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome (DHS), according to NalaGenetics. Before the pilot, there had been a 9.9 percent mortality risk for patients with DHS.
As part of the wider program in Indonesia, up to 16,000 leprosy patients each year will be screened for this biomarker. "While leprosy may not be prevalent in Singapore, our research has far-reaching implications for diseases that affect our region," Liu Jianjun, cofounder of NalaGenetics and a distinguished principal scientist at A*STAR GIS, said in a statement. "By unlocking the potential of Asian genomics, we are improving health outcomes not just for Singaporeans but for millions across Asia."
Separately, NalaGenetics has launched clinical trials in Nepal and India, with support from the Netherlands Leprosy Relief and the Indonesian Ministry of Health, in an attempt to validate the relevance of the HLA-B*13:01 biomarker more broadly in Asian populations.