IAG joins EU-backed ExoCordOA to support osteoarthritis imaging

Image Analysis Group has joined the five-year, €13 million ExoCordOA consortium as its imaging partner to help advance EXO-101 toward clinical validation in osteoarthritis. The project, launched Oct. 29 and funded by Horizon Europe, aims to generate the structural evidence regulators would need to assess a potential disease-modifying treatment.

Why it matters: - Osteoarthritis affects around 8% of the global population and is a leading cause of disability worldwide. - There are no approved disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs, leaving patients with symptom management and, in advanced cases, joint replacement. - ExoCordOA is designed to generate the clinical and structural evidence needed to test whether EXO-101 can slow or halt joint damage.

What happened: - Image Analysis Group said it has joined ExoCordOA as the consortium’s imaging Clinical Research Organization partner. - ExoCordOA is a five-year, €13 million Horizon Europe project led by Exogenus Therapeutics. - The consortium launched on Oct. 29, 2026. - The project focuses on advancing EXO-101, Exogenus’ secretome-based therapy, toward clinical validation as a potential disease-modifying osteoarthritis treatment.

The details: - The consortium includes 10 organizations spanning biotechnology, clinical and regulatory development, GMP manufacturing, medical imaging, academia and healthcare. - IAG will support patient stratification and the structural evidence needed to assess disease modification. - IAG’s role includes imaging strategy, standardized image acquisition across clinical sites and quantitative assessment of joint structure. - IAG will use its proprietary DYNAMIKA™ platform to support the imaging work. - The program will support EXO-101’s Phase I and Phase II clinical development. - The project also aims to address scientific, manufacturing, quality-control and regulatory barriers that slow the clinical translation of extracellular vesicle and secretome therapies. - ExoCordOA is funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe Grant Agreement No. 101288259. - The consortium is coordinated by Exogenus Therapeutics and includes Lonza, Anthony Nolan, Eliquent Life Sciences, iLoF - Intelligent Lab on Fiber, Utrecht University, University Medical Center Utrecht, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Image Analysis Group and ReumaNederland.

Between the lines: - Imaging is central to any claim that an osteoarthritis therapy changes disease course rather than only easing pain. - Regulators are expected to look for structural joint benefit that can connect to meaningful improvements in pain and function. - Exogenus is signaling that rigorous imaging endpoints will be part of the development plan from the start, not added later. - IAG’s addition gives the consortium a specialist partner focused on trial imaging quality and consistency. - Olga Kubassova, IAG’s CEO, said quantitative imaging can help generate the evidence regulators need to assess a disease-modification claim. - Joana Correia, Exogenus’ co-founder and CEO, said the consortium’s partners strengthen the clinical development strategy and that science and clinical evidence will determine outcomes.

What's next: - ExoCordOA will support EXO-101 through early-stage clinical development in Phase I and II. - The consortium will continue work on the analytical, manufacturing and regulatory challenges that stand between extracellular vesicle therapies and broader clinical use. - The project’s longer-term test is whether EXO-101 can produce enough structural evidence to support a disease-modifying osteoarthritis claim.

The bottom line: - IAG’s role gives ExoCordOA a dedicated imaging partner for one of osteoarthritis drug development’s hardest problems: proving structural disease modification.