Baltimore Business Journal
Maryland company creates method to determine if you really need a colonoscopy
May 12, 2016, 12:11pm EDT
Sarah Gantz
Germantown cancer diagnostics company Epigenomics has a solution to the “yuck factor” that deters millions of Americans from getting screened for colorectal cancer.
Epigenomics, an American and German diagnostics company, in April received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its colorectal cancer blood test, Epi pro Colon, and has landed lab testing giant LabCorp as its first customer.
The test is a less invasive — and less gross – alternative to stool sample screening tests that tell people whether they need a colonoscopy, and is entering the market as federal regulators push to increase compliance among Americans who should be getting screened. The test isn’t a replacement for a colonoscopy, but is a yuck-free way to tell who should get one and, company leaders hope, will lead to more people getting screened and catching more cancer in its earliest stages.
About 62 percent of the roughly 90 million Americans who should get screened for colorectal cancer actually do. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to raise screening compliance to 80 percent by 2018.
Epi pro Colon is ready to hit the market after eight years of testing and regulatory approvals.
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The American-German diagnostic company has a joint commercialization agreement with Polymedco Inc., a leading national supplier of lab tests and supplies. The two are moving quickly to take advantage of the potentially lucrative market of squeamish patients.
“Our target is the noncompliant patient,” said Epigenomics CEO Noel Doheny.
The patient whose doctor tells him every year to go get a colonoscopy and who, every year, shrugs off the order.
Aside from the “yuck factor,” as Doheny described it, patients can be deterred from the procedure because they can’t take the time off from work. Access to a nearby doctor can be a barrier for rural patients.
Epigenomics’ blood test aims to eliminate those barriers.
The test can be ordered by doctors as part of a panel of other lab work.
When doctors write out a prescription to send you to the lab for blood work, they’ll check the boxes for sugar, cholesterol and then one more — colorectal cancer, Doheny said.
LabCorp is the first of many lab clients Epigenomics hopes to land. When the labs’ sales representatives go on visits to doctors’ offices, they’ll take a long pamphlets about Epigenomics’ blood test and try to persuade them to order it for patients who have time and again refused to get a colonoscopy or stool test.
Once the test starts to catch on among labs and doctors, Epigenomics will likely pursue a social media campaign to market directly to patients.