Oncocyte, CORE Diagnostics join hands for expansion of DetermaRx in India
DetermaRx™ is Oncocyte's treatment stratification test that identifies patients at high risk for lung cancer recurrence, who may benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy post-surgery
India: Oncocyte Corporation, a molecular diagnostics company with a mission to provide actionable answers at critical decision points across the cancer care continuum, has announced that it has entered a distribution agreement with CORE Diagnostics, expanding the commercial availability of DetermaRx™ to India, the Middle East and Africa. DetermaRx™ is Oncocyte's treatment stratification test that identifies patients at high risk for lung cancer recurrence, who may benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy post-surgery.
CORE Diagnostics is one of the fastest-growing clinical laboratories in India, focused on bringing the most advanced testing techniques and expertise to the country. Under the terms of the agreement, tissue samples needed for the test will be run in the United States by Oncocyte, while CORE Diagnostics will generate test orders and provide customer service to patients.
"As we think about expanding beyond the U.S., one of our strategies is to partner with labs focused on delivering high value, proprietary diagnostics into an existing oncology channel to generate demand and brand awareness. CORE Diagnostics does exactly that," said Ron Andrews, Chief Executive Officer of Oncocyte.
"We believe CORE's oncology salesforce of 100 people and customer base of 5000 ordering physicians in 12 different countries will be critical as we work to increase awareness and availability of our tests among physicians and patients globally. We are thrilled to embark on this collaboration with such a respected and growing brand in this important market and are looking forward to tens of thousands more patients having access to our tests, potentially saving lives in the process. As we continue to grow, we intend to extend this distribution model to other geographies including South America and other parts of Asia as well."
Zoya Brar, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of CORE Diagnostics added, "The market for molecular testing in India and the Middle East is quite large. We focus on partnering with labs that offer proprietary diagnostics fulfilling an unmet need at a patient-friendly price for our population, and we believe DetermaRx perfectly fits these characteristics. We look forward to making this test and potentially other diagnostic tests from Oncocyte available across these countries in the future."
DetermaRx was launched in the United States through an Early Access Program (EAP) in late January 2020 with two sites. Since then it has continued to gain traction, rapidly expanding to eighteen sites in just the first three months of launch. These targeted sites are located across the country including multiple community cancer centres where early-stage cancer is managed including physicians from large community-based systems, such as Dignity Health and Northshore Oncology. The Company has onboarded eight sites in the past month despite COVID-19 challenges throughout the country. Oncocyte will begin serving physicians in these sites once surgeries for early-stage lung cancer ramp back up over the coming months.
"We're thrilled with the progress made thus far to expand the availability of DetermaRx, both in the U.S. and beyond," said Padma Sundar, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Market Access at Oncocyte.
"I'm incredibly proud of our team's rapid pivot to virtual operations as the COVID-19 situation began to progress and am confident that the quick expansion in DetermaRx test adoption sites was driven by this foresight. Our online peer-to-peer physician engagement initiatives have reached over 1500 potential participants. Additionally, we've seen success with virtual onboarding of sites using sophisticated physician office-friendly software for easy test ordering, processing and delivery of test reports, as well as prompt customer service. We intend to take these same steps to ensure similar expansion outside of the U.S. and are looking forward to continued progress."
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