"Osteoarthritis is a disease that afflicts 20m people in the US. One of the key requirements to enable disease-modifying agents to make their way through the drug development process in an accelerated fashion is the use of high precision image analysis tools that enable go/no-go decisions throughout each phase of discovery and development," said Jeff Markin, president and CEO of VirtualScopics. Under the terms of the agreement, VirtualScopics intend to provide quantitative magnetic resonance image (MRI) analysis to help determine the efficacy of the compound.

The 30-month contract uses VirtualScopics' image analysis to identify small changes in soft tissue and bone, which can provide information on drug effect and disease progression much earlier than standard x-ray joint space measurements.

As part of the agreement VirtualScopics will train, manage and collect MRI data from sites located throughout Europe and the US.

"The relationship with this important client has grown steadily during the last four years. We have moved from providing image analysis on preclinical to Phase 0 method studies to this very large international trial," said Rosemary Shull, director of business development at VirtualScopics.

"Impacting the treatment of osteoarthritis, a very painful and debilitating disease, has been a goal for VirtualScopics since its founding."