Based at the Biopôle Lausanne, Novigenix is an innovative Swiss molecular diagnostics company specializing in new generation blood tests for early detection of cancer. In recent months, the company announced a series of important news. Startupticker.ch had the opportunity to ask a few questions to its CEO, Dr. Jan Groen.

Novigenix has been progressing fast lately, announcing several news. Can you present us in a few words what the company does? 

Novigenix develops proprietary and validated diagnostic workflows based on our LITOseek platform for the early diagnosis and disease monitoring for various cancer indications. Currently our focus is on colorectal and prostate cancers. Novigenix also provides diagnostic services to pharma companies for the discovery and development of precision diagnostic tests to measure patient response against therapy.

Novigenix Colox is the first liquid biopsy test reimbursed in Switzerland for colon cancer screening through private outpatient supplementary insurance product offered by Helsana. Why is this announcement an important commercial milestone for your startup?

This was an extremely important milestone. Our Colox test has been on the Swiss self-pay market for several years, commercialized through Unilabs and Dr. Rich laboratories. Over 4,000 subjects have been tested, with each paying CHF 279 for the test ($275). Now we have the first contract with a private insurance company in place willing to reimburse everybody over the age of 50 at risk for colon cancer. The test is currently only available in Switzerland, but once we complete the development of the next generation test, ColoxPlus, we will start rollout of this across Europe and eventually also to the US.

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