The European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE) along with Exact Sciences, Guardant Health, Illumina, MSD and Novartis, have launched the European Coalition for Access to Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (ECGP), to improve cancer care through increased routine clinical access and reimbursement of Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (CGP) in Europe.
CGP is a method of testing tumors that utilizes next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect the main classes of genomic alterations and signatures in the full exonic region of genes known to drive cancer growth and identify patient eligibility for clinical trials, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies. Access to comprehensive genomic profiling in Europe is limited, with European cancer patients not having access to potentially life-changing targeted cancer treatments because current funding and reimbursement frameworks do not allow for routine testing for all relevant cancer mutations.
In alignment with initiatives of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and recommendations of the EU Mission on Cancer, EUCOPE is advocating for public policy that supports innovation, while fostering a community built on a shared purpose: improving and saving the lives of European patients through innovative therapies and medical technology, contributing to the vision of the Cancer Mission of improving the lives of more than three million people by 2030.
European Coalition for Genomic Profiling (ECGP): driving collaboration for personalized medicine
ECGP will involve the key stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, pathologists and industry to identify and share best practices, and develop evidence-based policy recommendations on the clinical and economic utility of CGP for payers and other decision-makers, based on multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary perspectives.
“Our commitment is to lead and engage in partnerships across the entire medicine lifecycle to find actionable solutions that benefit patients, healthcare systems, our members and society overall. ECGP will address an important access gap for European cancer patients and enable the shift of our healthcare systems towards personalized medicine,” said Alexander Natz, secretary-general of EUCOPE.
Comprehensive genomic profiling limited in Europe
Advances have been made in both genomic testing and the development of targeted therapies and immunotherapies for cancer patients over the last decade based on an increased understanding of cancer and the impact of the individual genomic makeup of each patient’s tumor.
A variety of genomic alterations in a broad number of genes can drive cancer growth. CGP can accurately detect these relevant genomic alterations across a large number of genes compared to standard diagnostic tests which are narrow in scope and therefore, potentially miss clinically relevant mutations.
The ECGP said: “We have the ambition to deliver the right treatment to the right patient at the right time – with widespread adoption of personalized medicine, the potential is enormous to derive significant benefit to patients and to healthcare systems alongside more targeted and efficient use of resources. Today, this rapid technological advancement is not fully adopted in clinical practice due to access for patients to comprehensive genomic profiling remaining limited. While important progress has been made in making genomic tests based on single biomarkers or a limited number of genes available to patients in Europe – access to more comprehensive tests like CGP is much more limited.”
In the coming months, ECGP said it will be inviting interested stakeholders to co-create solutions and progress the adoption of CGP with increased access for patients in EU Member States.
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