Oncimmune Holdings plc (LON:ONC), a leading early cancer detection company developing and commercialising its proprietary EarlyCDT® liquid biopsy platform technology, today announced that it has signed two exclusive agreements for distribution of its EarlyCDT®-Lung test in Brazil and Colombia with Valentech International LLC, as well as in Moldova with GBG-MLD SRL.
The agreements allow for the sale of the CE marked EarlyCDT®-Lung kit as a screening test and for the risk assessment of indeterminate pulmonary nodules. The agreement in Brazil and Colombia is for an initial term of five years and includes minimum sales commitments of £3,000,000 over the term of the contract, with first sales expected in Q1 2019. The agreement in Moldova is for an initial term of three years and includes minimum sales commitments of £200,000 over the term of the contract with first sales expected in Q3 2018.
Brazil has a population of 207 million which includes 22 million smokers. EarlyCDT-Lung will provide a screening tool for early detection of lung cancer to aid reducing the nearly 24,000 deaths per year. Columbia is relatively a smaller market with a lung cancer incidence of 6.2% amongst smokers. It is expected that EarlyCDT-Lung will be well received by physicians in both markets.
Moldova is a relatively small market, but with nearly 1 million smokers and a high incidence of lung cancer there is a significant need to improve the early diagnosis rate and reduce the burden of late stage lung cancer presentation in the country. Moldova will be an early adopter of EarlyCDT-Lung and initial discussions have already been held with regards to this leading to a screening pilot in the capital Chisinau.
Geoffrey Hamilton-Fairley, CEO of Oncimmune Holdings, commented: “We are delighted to sign our first distribution agreement in the South America region with Valentech. The agreement in Moldova is our sixth in Europe and now brings our total minimum committed revenues of £2.2 million over the next three years. Our total minimum global minimum committed revenues including Europe, Asia Pac including and South America, now total of £26.8 million over the next six years.
“With our R&D programme delivering new tests, including the recently completed EarlyCDT®-Liver test for hepatocellular carcinoma, and commercial opportunities in personalised medicine and companion diagnostics, we are well positioned to deliver further distribution deals across the globe in line with our strategy to generate revenues from our platform technology through multiple products, regions and partners.”
