HiloProbe enters strategically important partnership with Biocartis: ”Strengthens our focus”

Umeå based HiloProbe AB has entered a partnership with the major international company Biocartis Group NV. This is a strategically important step for HiloProbe in their aim to reach out globally with its colorectal cancer test-product, ColoNode®.
“We are very happy to start a collaboration and a long-term relationship with Biocartis, which strengthens our focus on colorectal cancer thanks to Biocartis’ established sales and distribution network across many countries”, Lina Olsson, CEO of HiloProbe, says.

CRC is the third most common cancer type in the world with an estimated 1.9 million new cases and 0.9 million deaths per year worldwide. 70-90 percent of CRC patients may undergo surgical resection of the tumor.

The HiloProbe product ColoNode is based on research around biomarkers in colorectal cancer. ColoNode is an IVD gene expression test, that can be used post-surgery to detect and analyse cancer cells from colorectal lymph node samples. The testresults can, together with other test results, in a safer way than with today's routine method whether the patient needs more treatment or if the patient has been cured with surgery.

The partnership between HiloProbe and Biocartis, a molecular diagnostics company based in Mechelen, Belgium, will initially focus on the commercialization of the ColoNode® CE-marked IVD manual kit in selected European countries by Biocartis.

Following commercial uptake of the manual kit, HiloProbe and Biocartis will consider developing a fully automated version of the test on Biocartis’ decentralized Idylla™ platform.

”Further development of a fully automated version of ColoNode® on the Idylla™ platform also holds great potential for ColoNode® to contribute faster and more easily to the safer selection of patients who could benefit from postoperative adjuvant treatment”, Lina Olsson, CEO HiloProbe, says.

Roger Moody, CEO of Biocartis comments:

“We are pleased to partner with HiloProbe on the distribution of the ColoNode® kit. This allows us to broaden our product offering to customers in the colorectal cancer domain, complementing tests for RAS biomarkers and MSI on our Idylla™ platform. The collaboration supports our mission to maximize patient access to precision medicine in oncology”.

About Hiloprobe
HiloProbe is a biotechnology company from Umeå founded 2016. The founders consist of a group of scientists, who have collaborated for more than 15 years in an academic setting and have produced high quality original research focusing on the development of clinically useful biomarkers in colorectal cancer.
The research has been focused on analysis of the regional lymph nodes in the resected specimen. The reason is that the lymph node is the first site where metastasizing cancer cells will occur. We have now discovered a limited number of biomarkers that, when analyzed together, identify tumor cells in the lymph node and grade tumor cell aggressiveness i.e. their propensity to metastasize to distant sites.
A product (ColoNode®), based on biomarker mRNA analysis, has been developed. The aim is to bring ColoNode® to the market to save people´s lives and aid in the development of more efficient treatment of colorectal cancer.

About Biocartis

With its revolutionary and proprietary Idylla™ platform, Biocartis (Euronext Brussels: BCART) aspires to enable personalized medicine for patients around the world through universal access to molecular testing, by making molecular testing actionable, convenient, fast and suitable for any lab. The Idylla™ platform is a fully automated sample-to-result, real-time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) based system designed to offer in-house access to accurate molecular information in a minimum amount of time for faster, informed treatment decisions.
Idylla™'s continuously expanding menu of molecular diagnostic tests address key unmet clinical needs, with a focus in oncology. This is the fastest growing segment of the molecular diagnostics market worldwide. Today, Biocartis offers tests supporting melanoma, colorectal, lung, liver and breast cancer, as well as for COVID-19, Flu, RSV and sepsis.
For more information, visit www.biocartis.com.