New boost for HIPARCO-score, a personalised medicine tool for resistant hypertension

The first personalized medicine tool focused on the treatment of resistant hypertension associated with sleep apnea, HIPARCO-score, has new advances.  Its co-owners, CIBER, IRBLleida, the Catalan Institute of Health, the University of Lleida and the La Fe Institute for Health Research, have signed a contract to license the patent to the start up Onira Research S. L for the definitive promotion of the project through its development and commercialisation.

Onira Research S. L was founded in Lleida with the objective of researching sleep and developing diagnostic tests and devices that improve the quality of life of patients. This company was founded by the majority inventors of the patent: Ferran Barbé, scientific director of the CIBER of Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES), head of the Pneumology Service at the Arnau de Vilanova University Hospital and professor at the University of Lleida; and by Manuel Sánchez de la Torre, a CIBERES researcher from the University of Lleida and the Lleida Institute for Biomedical Research.
Both are the driving force behind the HIPARCO project, which is developing an in vitro diagnostic kit capable of determining whether a patient with resistant hypertension could be treated with a positive air pressure device (CPAP), indicated for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea.
It is estimated that about 10% of those affected by hypertension do not respond to any medication. According to the WHO, about 130 million people worldwide are at risk of a serious cardiac event because they are one to three years without effective treatment. However, about 70% of these patients improve with the application of sleep apnoea treatment and move out of the danger zone.

Thanks to HIPARCO-score, innovation is allowed in the current management of resistant hypertension through the analysis of biomarkers in a simple blood sample, identifying which patients can benefit from CPAP and lower their blood pressure, and in which ones it could be counterproductive. It is, therefore, a unique and very promising personalized medicine tool in the prevention, prediction and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, with high reliability in the results.

A project by Caixaimpulse
Supported by the Caixaimpulse 2016 call from CIBER and promoted through an agreement for the development of the technology between IRBLleida and La Caixa, it has obtained from Onira Research the recognition of the best Medtech EIT Health bootcamp project in 2019.