2018 Biotechnology Awards

36 GHP / Biotechnology Awards 2018 , TherapySelect aims to increase each cancer patient’s chances of survival and quality of life, as well as to reduce costs in healthcare system. Frank explores the firm’s service offering in more detail, outlining how it works to ensure excellence in this vital practice area. “Here at TherapySelect, we focus on personalized medicine in oncology. The tests we offer are used to predict the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs before they are applied to the patient. As a result of our tests, ineffective therapies are avoided and patients receive drugs they respond to. We perform one test in our laboratory (CTR-Test, Chemotherapy- Resistance-Test) and we also offer two tests from US companies (PCDx from Paradigm Diagnostics and Guardant360 from Guardant Health). Personally, I have several years of experience in the field of oncology and personalized medicine. Before TherapySelect was established I did my PhD and Postdoc in the field of oncology as well. As such, I am well positioned to lead my dedicated team to success in this crucial field. As a company, our intention is to have a motivated team that BI180025 Best Cancer Patients Diagnostic Testing Specialists - Europe TherapySelect is a biotech company offering diagnostic tests which help treating physicians and patients to select the right anti-cancer drugs for the individual cancer patient. We invited Dr. Frank Kischkel to talk us through the firmand provide us with an insight into the solutions it offers. works for the patient’s sake. Everybody has unique skills, which we try to use for the team. Doing so we try to achieve this by not demanding too little and not expecting too much of every team member.” This work is incredibly important for the international healthcare market as cancer is a major burden of disease worldwide. A serious problem in cancer therapy are dramatically low response rates of patients to drug treatments (approximately 25%). Even for targeted drugs response rates are not satisfactory. Thus, it is of great importance that the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs is tested before drugs are applied to patients. Thereby the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs can be significantly improved and more cancer patients are helped. Owing to the importance of the firm’s work, Frank is eager to emphasise how the company works to offer a rounded service offering that is unique in the market. “The Chemotherapy-Resistance- Test (CTR-Test), which we perform on living tissue in our laboratory, is the only commercially available diagnostic test using 3-dimensional (3D) cell structures (spheroids). This approach is the most advanced approach with the highest clinical relevance, the best practicability and reasonable costs for chemotherapy efficacy testing. In addition, we collaborate with the renowned companies Paradigm Diagnostics and Guardant Health. “Thanks to these collaborations, we are able to provide our customers a comprehensive offer for drug efficacy testing including also molecular-based tumour profiling on fixed tissue (PCDx from Paradigm Diagnostics) and liquid biopsy using blood (Guardant360 from Guardant Health). Furthermore, we advise customers in detail, which diagnostic test suits best for their individual cancer. We believe that we offer the best diagnostic and consulting service for cancer patients.” Operating in such a fast paced market, moving forward TherapySelect will be seeking to remain at the forefront of emerging developments so that it can continue to incorporate the latest cancer therapies into its tests and offer patients the same potentially lifesaving solutions that they have come to rely on, as Frank proudly concludes. “Looking at the drug market currently, the trend is clearly moving towards usage of more targeted drugs in the future and less chemotherapeutic drugs. Immunotherapies are another new therapy option. Both targeted drugs and immunotherapies can already be tested via PCDx and Guardant360, at least in part. Currently we are able to test chemotherapeutics via the CTR- Test. However, all drugs directly acting on cancer cells can be tested with this test system. “Therefore, in the future we would like to additionally validate targeted drugs and immunotherapeutic drugs for the CTR-Test. We also would like to collect more clinical data regarding the clinical utility of our offered tests. Fundamentally, to continue supporting our patients and treating doctors, we want to be able to more precisely test the efficacy of these drugs via the CTR-Test.” Dr. Frank Kischkel