Takeda has announced ILLUMINATE - a rare disease diagnosis programme to support improved clinical results for patients with Lysosomal Storage Disorders (LSD), independently run and managed by PerkinElmer and sponsored by Baxalta Bioscience India (part of Takeda group of companies). The programme will support improved diagnostic pathways for patients with LSDs such as Gaucher disease, Fabry disease, and mucopolysaccharidosis Type II (MPSII; Hunter Syndrome).

Considerably reducing diagnostic time through the programme, physicians could timely initiate the therapy. Following initial recognition of symptoms that might indicate the diseases, Dried Blood Spot (DBS) testing enables physicians to confirm their diagnosis by taking a blood sample on a filter card and sending this to the laboratory for analysis. Reports are then available to the physicians, which can be accessed anytime on a password-based portal.

Simon Gallagher, Interim General Manager, Takeda India, said, “We are committed to bringing Better Health and a Brighter Future to people, including patients living with a rare disease with unmet medical needs. The programme will enable faster diagnosis, bridging infrastructure gaps to enable timely treatment and management of the disease."

In its first phase, the programme will be implemented by PerkinElmer at specific centres in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

Sumedha Gupta, Head of Patient Services, Takeda India, said, “Over two years – we look at targeting diagnosis for ~10,000 patients through our partner PerkinElmer and subsequently improve the diagnostic rate, which is currently observed as less than 1 per cent."