UCLB spinout Abcodia announces its ROCA Test® for ovarian cancer screening which could reduce mortality rates by 20%

UCL study shows ROCA Test® being developed by UCLB spinout Abcodia, which earlier in the year raised £5.25 million could be effective in reducing mortality rates.

The study showed a delayed effect on mortality between the screening and control arms, which the research team at UCL will follow up to establish the full impact of ovarian cancer screening.

Welcoming the outcome of the UKTOCS trial, published in The Lancet today, Julie Barnes, CEO of Abcodia, said:”Today’s exciting data is a huge endorsement for the ROCA Test and Abcodia’s ovarian cancer screening service.  We congratulate the investigators on the results and look forward to continuing our work with physicians to expand the availability of the ROCA Test to women across the UK and US, helping to detect cancer earlier.”

Professor Ian Jacobs, President and Vice-Chancellor of UNSW Australia and Honorary Professor at UCL, who co-invented the ROCA in 1996 and is also a non-executive director of Abcodia Ltd. said: “These results from UKCTOCS provide estimates of the mortality reduction attributable to ovarian cancer screening which range from 15% to 28%. Further follow up in UKCTOCS will provide greater confidence about the precise reduction in mortality which is achievable. It is possible that the mortality reduction after follow up for an additional 2-3 years will be greater or less than these initial estimates.”

Links:
For more information on Abcodia’s ROCA Test visit the website: www.therocatest.co.uk.

UCL announcement: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1215/171215-ovarian-cancer-screening/

Research paper in the Lancet
www.thelancet.com

About Abcodia
Abcodia is a clinical stage company engaged in the commercial development of novel, validated tests for the early detection of cancer. The Company’s first product is the ROCA Test for the early detection of ovarian cancer, and it is also expanding its pipeline of early detection technologies for lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancer. Abcodia’s offerings are based on expertise in measuring and modelling dynamic changes over time of serum-based biomarkers before cancer is clinically diagnosed, and it maintains exclusive commercial access to a biobank of 5 million samples donated from 200,000 individuals over a 10-year period. Abcodia holds strategic collaborations with leading global organizations including Cancer Research UK, University College London and other academic and industry partners.

Abcodia is a privately held company funded through investments from Albion Ventures, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Scottish Equity Partners and UCL Business. Headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., the Company has operations in Boston, Mass. and a clinical laboratory in Memphis, Tenn.

For more information, visit: http://www.abcodia.com

About the ROCA® Test
Abcodia’s first product, the ROCA Test indicates a woman’s likelihood of having ovarian cancer. The ROCA Test is intended for postmenopausal women aged between 50 and 85, or for certain women between 35 and 85 years of age who are considered to have a higher risk due to family history of ovarian or breast cancer or genetic mutations in, for example, the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. The ROCA test has been evaluated in several prospective clinical trials in both the U.K. and U.S. involving more than 215,000 women over the past 15 years. The results of those studies show that the ROCA Test, when used with appropriate clinical follow up, has a higher performance than other methods that have been evaluated prospectively in healthy women. In the majority of cases, the ROCA Test detects the majority of ovarian cancer cases before the first signs or symptoms of ovarian cancer appear.

The ROCA Test is CE marked and is currently available in the private healthcare market in the U.K. The ROCA Test became available in select U.S. markets in December 2015 and it will become available in additional U.S. states throughout 2016.

For more information, visit: http://www.therocatest.co.uk or http://www.rocatest.com

About UCLB
UCL Business PLC (UCLB) is a leading technology transfer company that supports and commercialises research and innovations arising from UCL, one of the UK’s top research-led universities. UCLB has a successful track record and a strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics. UCLB has a strong track record in commercialising medical technologies and provides technology transfer services to UCL’s associated hospitals; University College London Hospitals, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Free London Hospital. It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from laboratory to market.

For further information, please visit: www.uclb.com