Invitrocue, a leading healthcare bio-analytic solutions provider, is pleased to announce the signing of its first laboratory agreement in Germany as part of its strategy to make its Onco-PDO personalised cancer screening service available to patients and physicians in Germany. Further, the new lab will act as the central reference lab for Onco-PDOTM tests performed throughout Europe.

Located in Munich, the laboratory is a shared service provided by Systasy Bioscience GmbH, a Munich-based company that provides innovative cell analysis services. The agreement will grant Invitrocue access to Systasy’s world-class facilities with immediate effect and marks the initiation of the full commercial roll-out of the Onco-PDO test in Germany, then gradually to rest of Europe. Invitrocue has already begun a physician education program in collaboration with key cancer centres in Europe and will continue to establish new relationships with leading physicians in addition to ongoing patient education to support its commercialisation plans.

The Onco-PDO^TM technology enables patient-derived cancer cells (organoids) to be cultured in laboratories for testing against a broad panel of chemotherapy drugs to support clinical decision making for individual patients. It is currently available for use by physicians and patients in Asia, where tests are sent to Invitrocue’s laboratory in Singapore.

The new lab in Germany will also enable Invitrocue to conduct clinical validation studies in new and existing indications for Onco-PDO^TM and make Invitrocue’s drug toxicology testing services available to commercial partners in Germany.

Dr. Giovanna Leoni has been appointed to the role of Head Laboratory Manager. She has extensive experience leading projects with well-known research laboratories in Germany, Italy, UK and the US.

Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Steven Fang, Executive Chairman, Invitrocue, said: “We are pleased to establish Invitrocue’s first laboratory in Europe, quickly expanding the availability of Onco-PDOTM to a much wider patient and physician group. Approximately one quarter of the global total of cancer cases are in Europe with some 3.7 million new patients per year.1 Our collaboration with Systasy enables us to deliver against our strategy to gain fast access to test facilities and scale our operations with a well-managed cost base.”

Dr Andreas Lindner, Chief Executive Officer of Invitrocue Europe, added: “The opening of our first laboratory in Europe marks an important milestone for our Onco-PDOTM commercialisation plans. We can now offer the test to patients in Germany as well as in other countries in Europe, including Spain, France and the UK where the burden and costs of cancer are rising. The Onco-PDOTM test provides patients and their physicians with the missing datapoint to inform treatment pathways and ultimately achieve better treatment outcomes.”