The European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE), Exact Sciences, Guardant Health, Illumina, MSD and Novartis have come together to launch the European Coalition for Access to Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (ECGP).
It is hoped that the Coalition will improve cancer care through increased routine clinical access and reimbursement of Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (CGP) in Europe.
CGP utilises 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.
ECGP aims to involve 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.
“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 personalised medicine,” commented Alexander Natz, Secretary-General of EUCOPE.
ECGP will invite interested stakeholders to co-create solutions and progress the adoption of CGP with increased access for patients in EU Member States.
