Espoo, Finland, February 2023. Euformatics, a global leader in NGS data quality control and variant interpretation, together with ViennaLab Diagnostics and Oncompass Medicine, has been awarded with one of the four awarded Phase 1 contracts to research & develop the design of an economically sustainable liquid biopsy diagnostics solution based on DNA and RNA molecular profiling in cancer patients for a buyer consortium including some of the highest ranking European hospitals* from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium for the OncNGS pre-commercial procurement **.
OncNGS aims to improve cancer patients’ through development of novel molecular DNA/RNA analysis and profiling of tumor-derived material in liquid biopsies using a pan-cancer tumor marker analysis kit combined with a bioinformatics decision support system including the analytical test interpretation and clinical oncology reporting. Phase 1 contracts start now in February 2023 after an open market consultation and call for tenders process and selection of suppliers in 2022. The overall pre-commercial procurement will span across three competing phases and will run until 2026 with a total contract value of 7 million euros.
During the open market consultation in 2022 Euformatics, ViennaLab and Oncompass Medicine decided to join forces and answer to the Call for Tender together to leverage the strengths of each partner and build a strong proposal. The combination of existing cancer kit NGS assay, IP and expertise in areas such as diagnostics for the detection of genetic variants, variant interpretation, NGS data quality control and precision oncology enabled the newly created bidding consortium to submit a strong offer.
OncNGS buyers group, commented, “There is a need for a minimally invasive, scalable and cost-efficient solutions in Europe for screening and diagnosing cancer.” OncNGS pre-commercial procurement project was set up to achieve this and we received many proposals from both leading academic institutions and private companies to deliver the solution according to our requirements. Four novel approaches have been selected to start with the research and design of the solutions in the Phase 1. We are looking forward to starting collaborating with them.”
Tommi Kaasalainen, CEO of Euformatics, said, “Diagnosing cancer accurately using NGS data from a liquid biopsy sample is not a trivial task. Offering an end-to-end solution from library preparation until therapy selection is even harder. That is why we partnered with ViennaLab Diagnostics and Oncompass Medicine. These are companies on the top of the game in their respective fields and complementary to our bioinformatics software expertise. Together, we can deliver a smooth end-user experience to oncologists.”
Martin Zeppetzauer, CEO of ViennaLab, continues, ”We firmly believe in our capabilities to design and deliver a highly impactful solution for oncologists and minimally invasive for the patients. Our product will compete with other major players in the market, and we are happy that it will be the result of a strong alliance with the talented teams at Euformatics & Oncompass Medicine.”
Professor Dr. Istvan Petak, Founder and CEO of Oncompass Medicine, concludes, “Our solution aims to find the right targeted therapy for cancer patients at the molecular level. This requires a lot of scientific knowledge and high-quality data. So, I’m excited to work closely with Euformatics and ViennaLab. Their respective expertise in the dry and wet lab will help us in selecting the most appropriate personalized treatments for the patients.”
The Phase 1 of the pre-commercial procurement starts now and the first delivery milestone will be already in Q2 2023. The procurement consortium will then evaluate the output of phase 1 and will invite the successful suppliers to submit an offer for Phase 2. Awarded R&D providers in Phase 2, will develop the designed prototype and will further demonstrate clinical performance and analytical validity such as assay performance to examine accuracy, precision and specificity of the workflow results.
* oncNGS procurement consortium is formed by oncology medical centers from the Sciensano and Institut Jules Bordet in Belgium, Institut Curie and Hospices Covils de Lyon in France, Charite Universtaetsmedizin and Ludwig Maximilians Universtaet Muenchen in Germany, Alleanza Contro il Cancro in Italy, and Institut Catala d’Oncologia in Spain.
** This pre-commercial procurement is co-funded by the European Union Grant Agreement number 874467.
About OncNGS:
OncNGS is a five year pre-commercial procurement project federating 8 leading medical centers as buyers’ groups with major experience in using different NGS platforms in cancer diagnostics. The consortium is further strengthened by a standardization organization in cancer control, European leading biomedical research in the field of haematologic malignancies and several other partners to cover all commercial aspects, intellectual property rights, innovation adoption and technical requirements.
For more information, please visit the website http://oncngs.eu/
About Euformatics:
Euformatics is a Finnish software company that specializes in high standard bioinformatics tools for genomic data interpretation. Since 2010, Euformatics has been helping medical doctors and molecular genetics laboratories provide better precision medicine for cancer, common or rare disease diagnostics. At present, our core solution is the Genomics Hub which includes omnomicsNGS; for clinical analysis and reporting of patient NGS data, and omnomicsQ; for NGS data quality management.
For more information, please visit our website www.euformatics.com.
About ViennaLab:
ViennaLab Diagnostics specializes in easy-to-use in vitro diagnostic assays for the detection of genetic variants associated with genetic disorders, genetic predispositions, pharmacogenetics, cancer, and the human microbiome.
All ViennaLab products are designed and manufactured in accordance with the quality standard of ISO 13485. Where indicated the ViennaLab assays carry CE IVD status or are IVDR certified products.
For more information, please visit the website https://www.viennalab.com/
About Oncompass Medicine:
Oncompass is the winner of the Future Unicorn Award 2021 of DIGITALEUROPE, the association of technology companies in forty countries in Europe. The company is the global champion of GETINTHERING startup competition 2021 out of competing companies of 109 countries. Oncompass was the first to develop a software as a medical device based on artificial intelligence that proved to improve therapeutic decisions in precision oncology. Oncompass also provides end-to-end services for oncology centers that wish to provide precision oncology to their patients.
For more information, please visit the website www.oncompassmedicine.com
Press Relations:
Tommi Kaasalainen
Euformatics
tommi.kaasalainen@euformatics.com
