Phenomix Sciences Tackles Variability in Obesity Treatment Outcomes with Industry’s First Precision Medicine Platform

Menlo Park, CA and St. Paul, MN. -- October 5, 2022 -- Phenomix Sciences (Phenomix), a precision obesity biotechnology company, announced today the Phenomix Sciences Obesity Platform, the first robust set of data and tools aimed at personalizing treatments for obesity patients. Obesity medicine, as it is practiced today, consists of trying various medical interventions for a significant amount of time until one elicits a response in the patient. Phenomix seeks to tackle the well-documented but poorly understood variability in responses to treatments by leveraging clinical data and advanced analytics to unlock precision medicine for this multifaceted disease.

The Phenomix Sciences Obesity Platform is designed to collect and analyze data at all stages of the disease. The platform will collect data from biological samples, behavioral assessments, clinical trial results and more, to match the patient’s profile to one or more of four phenotypes - the combination of genes with environmental and behavioral factors. Based on the scientific discoveries of Phenomix’s founders, Dr. Andres Acosta and Dr. Michael Camilleri of the Mayo Clinic, obesity is not one disease but many, at least four of which can be determined by clinical examination, or “phenotyping.” These four phenotypes of obesity account for at least 90 percent of obese patients. These clinical insights from phenotyping inform the platform’s data collection goals and the analytical tools used to interpret the data. To date, more than 20 billion data points have been collected from obesity patients and the company has launched a biobanking initiative with key centers. The data will be analyzed for overall outcomes using advanced analytics, such as AI and machine learning, to develop additional tests based on phenotypes that inform future treatment decisions by predicting patient response to treatments and interventions.

Phenomix is currently developing its first therapy selection test using data from the platform to predict patient response to GLP-1 treatments, such as Wegovy (semaglutide). GLP-1 products have created much excitement in the obesity treatment community, but with a high price tag at self-pay rates and a large percentage of patients experiencing gastrointestinal issues (73 percent), further insight into which patients would be likely to respond favorably to these therapies is critical. Phenomix’s tests will give the entire obesity community (providers, pharmaceuticals, and payers) access to data-informed decision making opportunities with the goal of improving patient outcomes and reducing overall healthcare costs.

“My years of clinical research have all revolved around a single goal: to understand and cure obesity. Phenotyping opens the doors to data-driven clinical decision making that will fundamentally change how we treat obesity as a disease by allowing us to better prospect treatment options. Phenomix is the first to bring a solution to market based on this science,” said Dr. Andres Acosta, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder of Phenomix Sciences. “Variability in outcomes is a challenging problem as the industry prescribes blanket diets and medications designed for the masses without any understanding of the personalized facets of the disease. The future of precision medicine in obesity treatment is realized with our platform, and that promise lies in phenotyping.”

In order to achieve these milestones, Phenomix has strategically hired talent to support its growth and development, specifically focused on the obesity platform’s launch. Dr. Timothy O’Connor, PhD was recently hired as Chief Data Scientist to further establish its credibility as a leader in precision medicine for obesity. His role at Phenomix consists of bridging his bioinformatics and software engineering skills learned as the Software Development Engineer at Microsoft and the Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at Illumina to translate discoveries into products. In addition, Phenomix brought on Liv Williamsen as its Chief Operating Officer, where she is driving operational excellence in building, leading, and executing the commercial launch strategy for the Obesity Platform. Williamsen brings nearly 20 years of experience in sales, clinical, and marketing leadership in the obesity device space.

For more information, visit www.phenomixsciences.com.

About Phenomix Sciences
Phenomix Sciences is a biotechnology pioneer on a mission to conquer obesity globally through the science of phenotyping, the understanding of how genes combined with environmental and behavioral factors can inform obesity treatment plans. Mayo Clinic physicians, scientists, and researchers, Drs. Acosta and Camilleri, founded the company under the belief that the key to understanding obesity is unprecedented access to its clinical and molecular information throughout all stages and phenotypes of the disease. Phenomix leverages data intelligence to yield better accuracy in predicting individual patient response to specific weight loss interventions and reducing the variability in weight loss results for patients. For more information, please visit www.phenomixsciences.com.