Invitrocue roll-out of Onco-PDOTM services in Germany
January 18, 2019 – Invitrocue Limited (ASX: IVQ), a leading healthcare bio-analytic solutions provider, is pleased to announce the signing of its first laboratory agreement in Germany as part of its strategy to make its Onco-PDOTM personalised cancer screening service available to patients and physicians in Germany. Further, the new lab will act as the central reference lab for Onco-PDOTM tests performed throughout Europe.
Located in Munich, the laboratory is a shared service provided by Systasy Bioscience GmbH, a Munich-based company that provides innovative cell analysis services. The agreement will grant Invitrocue access to Systasy’s world-class facilities with immediate effect and marks the initiation of the full commercial roll-out of the Onco-PDOTM test in Germany, then gradually to rest of Europe. Invitrocue has already begun a physician education program in collaboration with key cancer centres in Europe and will continue to establish new relationships with leading physicians in addition to ongoing patient education to support its commercialisation plans.
The Onco-PDOTM technology enables patient-derived cancer cells (organoids) to be cultured in laboratories for testing against a broad panel of chemotherapy drugs to support clinical decision making for individual patients. It is currently available for use by physicians and patients in Asia, where tests are sent to Invitrocue’s laboratory in Singapore.
The new lab in Germany will also enable Invitrocue to conduct clinical validation studies in new and existing indications for Onco-PDOTM and make Invitrocue’s drug toxicology testing services available to commercial partners in Germany.
Dr. Giovanna Leoni has been appointed to the role of Head Laboratory Manager. She has extensive experience leading projects with well-known research laboratories in Germany, Italy, UK and the US.
Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Steven Fang, Executive Chairman, Invitrocue, said:
“We are pleased to establish Invitrocue’s first laboratory in Europe, quickly expanding the availability of Onco-PDOTM to a much wider patient and physician group. Approximately one quarter of the global total of cancer cases are in Europe with some 3.7 million new patients per year.1 Our collaboration with Systasy enables us to deliver against our strategy to gain fast access to test facilities and scale our operations with a well-managed cost base.”
Dr Andreas Lindner, Chief Executive Officer of Invitrocue Europe, added:
“The opening of our first laboratory in Europe marks an important milestone for our Onco-PDOTM commercialisation plans. We can now offer the test to patients in Germany as well as in other countries in Europe, including Spain, France and the UK where the burden and costs of cancer are rising. The Onco-PDOTM test provides patients and their physicians with the missing datapoint to inform treatment pathways and ultimately achieve better treatment outcomes.”
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1 http://www.euro.who.int/en/
For more information contact:
Martin D. Bach, VP Operations
T: +65 6460 0497
martind.bach@invitrocue.com
About Invitrocue
Invitrocue is a leading healthcare bio-analytic solutions provider including in vitro cell-based testing technologies and image analytics software for use in digital pathology. Invitrocue has developed a unique 3D cell-based scaffolding technology that mimics human organ samples for using in the field of infectious diseases. In 2016, the company expanded its work in liver disease to the field of oncology. Invitrocue’s Onco-PDOTM technology enables patient-derived cancer cells (organoids) to be cultured in laboratories for testing against a panel of drugs to support clinical decision making for individual patients (personalised medicine).
Invitrocue’s technology originated in Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Invitrocue has been developed and validated in partnerships with leading biopharmaceutical companies and scientific collaborators.
Invitrocue is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker IVQ. Website: www.invitrocue.com
About Systasy
Systasy, a growing start-up company founded in Munich in 2012, provides cost-effective and highly innovative solutions to address critical and unmet needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Systasy’s products and services are ranging from the analysis of cellular target activities and specificities to the simultaneous analysis of multiple pathways in living cells, based on their proprietary splitSENSOR and EXTassay technologies. Systasy takes advantage of their EXTassay technology to deliver profile analyses for a multitude of simultaneous cellular events to customers. Thus, Systasy’s services and products are designed to meet customer’s needs in the early phases of drug discovery and personalised medicine.