Dan bij deze:
Biocartis and Ophiomics to Collaborate on
Liver Cancer Test
• Primary liver cancer
1
is the sixth most common and third most lethal cancer in the world
• Collaboration to focus on commercialization of HepatoPredict™, a prognostic gene expression signature test to identify
which patients will benefit from liver transplantation
Mechelen, Belgium, 8 February 2022 - Biocartis Group NV (the ‘Company’ or ‘Biocartis’), an innovative
molecular diagnostics company (Euronext Brussels: BCART), and Ophiomics, a Lisbon (Portugal) based biotech
company developing a precision medicine portfolio focused on liver cancer, today announce that they entered into
a collaboration which will initially focus on the commercialization of HepatoPredict™, a prognostic gene expression
signature test to help identify which patients will benefit from curative-intent surgery, in particular liver
transplantation. HepatoPredict™ will be distributed by Biocartis in Europe as a manual kit mainly addressing
centralized expert laboratories, and the test may later be translated into a version on Biocartis’ rapid and easy-to?use molecular diagnostics platform Idylla™.
Primary liver cancer is the sixth most common and third most lethal cancer in the world, with more than 900,000
new cases per year resulting in more than 800,000 deaths per year2
. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most
common type of primary liver cancer that frequently occurs in people with chronic liver diseases, such as cirrhosis3
.
Treatment options include ablation4
, surgical resection5 or transplantation, with liver transplant being the most
effective curative treatment for HCC patients with cirrhosis6
. Due to shortage of donor organs, the proper selection
of patients is crucial. Current models to select patients are sub-optimal7
, leading to potential exclusion of patients
that may benefit from surgery.
HepatoPredict™ is a gene expression signature test that combines clinical parameters with molecular markers to
assess the tumor biology, aiming to predict which patients will benefit most from liver transplant and identifying
those for which a transplant should be avoided. HepatoPredict™ has been validated retrospectively with
encouraging results, increasing the number of patients that can benefit from curative-intent transplantation by
32%8
. Further prospective and retrospective validation is ongoing9
.
HepatoPredict™ will be launched as a CE-marked IVD manual kit in Q1 2022. The partnership will initially focus on
Biocartis’ commercialization of the manual kit in Europe. In a next stage, depending on successful commercial
uptake of the manual kit, Ophiomics and Biocartis aim to initiate the development of a fully automated version of
the test on Biocartis’ decentralized Idylla™ platform.
Herman Verrelst, Chief Executive Officer of Biocartis, commented: “We are excited to partner with
Ophiomics to improve outcomes for liver cancer patients. The availability of a manual kit version of the Ophiomics
test allows us to help patients and generate commercial traction right from the start of the collaboration while we
prepare to bring this test onto our Idylla™ platform to maximize patient access to the test long term.”
José Pereira Leal, Chief Executive Officer of Ophiomics, added: “We are thrilled to be initiating this
collaboration with a company that is complementary to Ophiomics’ vision to develop effective precision medicine
solutions that enable patients and healthcare providers to make the best treatment decisions. This partnership will
enable us to immediately leverage Biocartis’ commercial organization for an early access to the European market,
anticipating future, closer collaboration on this and other assays.”