LAUSANNE, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Novigenix SA, a leading Immuno-Transcriptomics company that develops and commercializes solutions for early cancer detection and precision medicine. today announced that Helsana, the leading health insurance provider in Switzerland, has started coverage for Colox®, a liquid biopsy test for early detection of colorectal cancer.
In Switzerland, over 4,500 new cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed every year. Since market introduction, more than 400 primary-care physicians have prescribed the use of Colox in over 4,000 individuals, enabling detection of resectable tumors and treatable cancers through follow-up colonoscopies. A recent post-marketing study showed a 60% increase in the detection rate of advanced adenomas in the Colox tested group compared to the general population. Through the new partnership between Novigenix and Helsana, individuals with the private outpatient supplementary insurance, PRIMEO, will be reimbursed for the Colox test. Colox is currently available in Switzerland through commercial partnerships with the medical laboratories Unilabs and Dr Risch.
“This is a very positive development for Novigenix and serves as an important step in our strategy to increase the adoption and acceptance of our current and next generation Colox test in Switzerland among physicians and payors. We believe that the adoption of Colox as a non-invasive screening method could increase the market opportunity for Colox in the mid-term to more than five thousand patients annually in Switzerland alone, as well as guide the path into other markets inside the EU and beyond,” said Dr. Jan Groen, CEO of Novigenix.
A precondition for cost coverage is the inclusion of the private outpatient supplemental insurance PRIMEO. Preventive testing can be offered to women and men over the age of 50 who present no symptoms and do not have a personal history of polyps or family history of colorectal cancer. Under the partnership with Novigenix, PRIMEO insureds receive early paid access, in terms of improved medical care, to a non-invasive blood test that meets the latest technological and scientific standards but is not reimbursed by compulsory health insurance, and which, for this reason, is now considered to be a diagnostic innovation of PRIMEO.
About Colox
The blood test Colox is designed for accurate and reliable detection of adenoma and early stage colorectal cancer. It offers a convenient solution for patients to be tested with no need for bowel or stool preparation. It can be ordered by the physician as part of a routine medical check-up. Individuals testing positive with Colox are referred for follow-up diagnostic colonoscopy and the ones testing negative should continue periodic testing. Based on the tumor-host interaction, Colox measures the immune system reaction to the onset of colorectal cancer. The test analyses the transcriptome of immune cells isolated from a blood sample. The immune cells in the blood change their transcriptomic profiles in presence of growing adenoma and colorectal carcinoma as part of the “host-response”.
About Helsana – Committed to life
The Helsana Group is Switzerland’s dependable health and accident insurer, offering both individuals and enterprises a complete health and prevention service. It is not listed on the stock exchange and is organized as a holding. With over CHF 6 billion in earned premiums, the company is one of the leading providers in the Swiss insurance market with a workforce of more than 3,000 employees in Switzerland.
The Helsana Group insures over 1.9 million people in Switzerland against the financial consequences of illness, accidents, maternity and long-term care in old age. With a wide range of products and services in the areas of basic, supplementary and accident insurance, Helsana is committed to the lives of each and every one of its members. Helsana develops insurance solutions to mitigate the economic consequences of illness or accident-related occupational absences for 44,400 companies and associations with a total of 710,000 insured members.
About PRIMEO
PRIMEO is an innovative supplementary insurance that covers outpatient procedures. Patients have an unrestricted choice of doctors, enjoy a high level of comfort and privacy and benefit from attractive supplementary benefits such as check-ups, high-quality implants, innovative diagnosis and treatment forms and much more. For more details please consult www.primeo/insurance
About Novigenix
Novigenix is committed to providing a new understanding of the human host response against cancer. The company was founded on the vision that Immuno-Transcriptomics will bring unprecedented advances in diagnosing and treating cancer patients leading to significant improvement in healthcare. Novigenix’s unique Immuno-Transcriptomics technology enables an accelerated identification of disease specific mRNA signatures of circulating immune cells, which combined with machine learning and predictive algorithms, can predict onset and progression of disease. The Company has established a valuable multicultural biobank and database of over 1,400 patients at risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) and has launched its first blood-based molecular diagnostic product, Colox, for the early detection of colon cancer. For more information visit www.novigenix.com.
