EXtended Analysis of Circulating Tumour DNA to improve cancer management strategies

Project Information

EXACT-dna

Grant agreement ID: 791673

DOI

10.3030/791673

Project closed

EC signature date 30 November 2017

Start date 1 December 2017

End date 31 May 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Biotechnology

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SAGA DIAGNOSTICS AB
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EXACT-dna (EXtended Analysis of Circulating Tumour DNA to improve cancer management strategies)

Reporting period: 2017-12-01 to 2018-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Cancer is one of the most prevalent and deadly diseases affecting humankind. Personalized medicine, including precision diagnostics, is the future of healthcare and holds the promise to improve quality of life and better outcomes more efficiently. In the coming 5 years, the cancer diagnostics market is believed to gain its fastest growth in the field of liquid biopsies and more specifically ultrasensitive analysis of cell-free circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). SAGA Diagnostics is right in the middle of this development with our superior technologies IBSAFE™ and KROMA™ for cancer monitoring using minimally invasive liquid biopsies such as blood samples.
The objective of the Phase 1 project was to work out a business plan for the further clinical development and commercialization of our solutions.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The feasibility study was performed using the Strategic Business Planning Methodology which resulted in an overall business development strategy for the company. The data collected provided a valuable understanding of the current trends and opportunities on the liquid biopsy market, targeted users, competitors and potential partnerships. The assessment also resulted in a work plan for carrying out validation studies that will show the benefit of our products in breast cancer, melanoma and lung cancer patients.
The feasibility study has confirmed that there is a clear business opportunity to exploit on the global liquid biopsy market and to deliver new unique technologies for the isolation, detection and quantification of ctDNA.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The feasibility study has further confirmed the innovative character of SAGA Dx’s products.
IBSAFE™ and KROMA™ form a complete solution which is minimally invasive and simple when it comes to sample collection and is at least 100-fold more sensitive than competitors’ methods, having an industry leading 0.001% lower limit of detection. This translates into unique opportunities to detect clinically-actionable mutations and resistance mutations, aid treatment decisions, monitor drug response, predict good or poor survival and detect metastatic cancer years earlier compared to existing methods. We will deliver tools that will allow for a personalized approach to cancer management based on minimally invasive technologies that will shorten time to diagnosis and the treatment of patients and increase their comfort by reducing overtreatment

SAGA Diagnostics