Prescient Medicine said this week that it has partnered with Dutch medical research institute Erasmus MC to evaluate its opioid addiction risk technology in a clinical study in the Netherlands.

Prescient offers a tes, called LifeKit Predict that is designed to determine an individual's risk of opioid addiction by analyzing 16 genes in the brain's reward pathway. The assay uses multiplexed PCR and nucleic acid hybridization to analyze DNA extracted from buccal swabs.

The test, developed in collaboration with recently acquired AutoGenomics, was granted a breakthrough device designation by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2018.

According to Carlsbad, California-based Prescient, the study with Erasmus MC aims to confirm positive results from research completed in the US.

"A test like this is valuable to anyone prescribing opioids, not just in the United States," Prescient CEO Keri Donaldson said in a statement. "We are excited to expand the use of this test to the Netherlands and potentially help play a part in helping combat the opioid crisis that may be developing in the Netherlands and throughout the world."