Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd partners with York Health Economics Consortium to demonstrate OncoProg ® cost-effectiveness within the health service
OXFORD, UK – July 29th, 2021 – Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd (OCB), a pioneer in precision medicine, has announced a collaboration with York Health Economics Consortium (York) to commission a cost-effectiveness model for the OncoProg ® (colorectal) product. The model is crucial to demonstrate that OncoProg (colorectal) will seamlessly integrate into the NHS and other health services without being a burden on existing healthcare infrastructure.
“Health economic evaluation is about recognising ‘opportunity cost’ in a world with limited resources. In other words, if we want to spend money on a new technology, we have to accept that that money will have to be taken from somewhere else in the health system. This is important to manufacturers bringing new technologies to the UK, because they will need to prove that their technology offers a higher rate of benefit per unit of spending than existing services, and this means being able to quantify those benefits in a way that can be easily compared across many different areas of the health system” – caption provided by York Health Economics Consortium.
“Trying to model different multiple inputs and forces into a very new technological area like digital pathology – and eventually with artificial intelligence – is a big challenge. OCB must look at the complete picture; the upfront cost to the health service, the cost of treatment or non-treatment to the patient (and their families) as well as the implication to the wider health service. These data are crucial in establishing OncoProg ® across the world and especially for positioning OncoProg ® for NICE accreditation” said Business Development Manager, Calum Johnstone. “Our partnership with York is a very important milestone in the OncoProg ® journey and a key component of delivering this great product to patients around the world.”
“OCB have full confidence that OncoProg ® (colorectal) will be an amazing edition to any healthcare service offering” said Chief Executive Officer, Hao Zhang. “OncoProg ® is a clinical decision support tool for stage 2 colorectal cancer and represents a field that is rapidly expanding and where currently there is little data available”. The addition of this health economic model will add further weight to OncoProg’s ability to pioneer the treatment pathways for colorectal patients and the ability to add significant value to health services across the world.
Earlier this year, OncoProg ® received a CE mark. The CE mark for OncoProg ® represents an important regulatory validation for OCB’s flagship digital pathology product and is an important milestone for the team as the Company starts work on the future iterations of the product.
The OCB team are excited to deliver OncoProg ® and other products like it to the NHS and also other health services across the world to improve precision medicine capabilities and patient outcomes.
If you would like to know more about this technology, please get in touch with one of the team.
About OncoProg®
OncoProg ® determines the prognosis of Stage II colorectal cancer patients after treatment with fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy. The platform utilises digital pathology to examine specimens in order to determine DNA ploidy and tumour stroma content.
Biomarkers are combined to stratify patients into categories informing on risk of recurrence:
- High risk (non-diploid and high stroma)
- Intermediate risk (non-diploid and low stroma OR diploid and high stroma)
- Low risk (diploid and low stroma)
OncoProg ® provides clinicians and patients with information that, together with other relevant clinical parameters such as co-morbidities and performance status, can help assist in the choice of chemotherapy treatment regimens after initial surgery. OncoProg ® will eventually be compatible with other types of cancer and will be driven by artificial intelligence.
About Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd
Oxford Cancer Biomarkers started as a spin off from the University of Oxford. The aim of the company was to discover and develop biomarkers using screening platforms to advance personalised medicine within oncology, specifically colorectal cancer.
Since then, the company has built a world class development team consisting of industry professionals, leading scientists and oncologists whilst maintaining strong links to the University of Oxford. Together, OCB have launched their first product – ToxNav ® – and are positioned to launch OncoProg ® into the UK this year (2021). OCB’s vision is to be the leading pioneer in biomarker technology and deploy artificial intelligence that places individual patients at the heart of cancer care.
Contact
Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd
Tel: +44 1865 784743