Oncimmune signs two NHS contracts, has NICE guidance published

Oncimmune has signed a commercial contract to supply its ‘EarlyCDT Lung’ blood test to NHS Norfolk & Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group, it announced on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said it had also signed a commercial contract to supply EarlyCDT Lung blood test into the NHS Lung Health Check Programmes in Wessex and Yorkshire, as part of the iDx-LUNG evaluation programme.

It also said that, following in-depth due diligence by the NHS, it had also been notified that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) had selected the EarlyCDT Lung blood test for Diagnostics Assessment Guidance.

That decision followed the publication by NICE in March of the positive Medtech Innovation Briefing 209 titled ‘EarlyCDT-Lung for cancer risk classification of indeterminate pulmonary nodules’.

The successful completion of the assessment would further support wider market adoption of EarlyCDT Lung in the NHS.

Oncimmune said that under the commercial contract with the Norfolk & Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group, the group would be evaluating the use of the EarlyCDT Lung blood test in a clinical setting.

A successful conclusion to the contract, combined with guidance from NICE, was expected to support the adoption of the EarlyCDT Lung blood test into the clinical pathway for the early detection of lung cancer across NHS East of England.

The first phase of the commercial contract, which was scheduled to start in January, would focus on patients with ideterminate pulmonary nodules.

Oncimmune said the second phase would see the EarlyCDT Lung blood test used in a screening setting with people at risk recruited in selected GP practices in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

The contract was unconstrained, although the evaluation was scheduled to be completed in both settings within 12 months.

For the Wessex and Yorkshire iDx-LUNG programme, Oncimmune said it had been selected to supply the EarlyCDT Lung blood test on commercial terms into the programme, which would collect blood samples from 15,000 people attending the NHS England Lung Health Check Programme, delivered through mobile CT scanning sites across Wessex and Yorkshire.

As well as targeting increased survival rates, an aim of the iDx-LUNG programme was to streamline the process of detecting incident lung cancers in the community and thus reduce the NHS resource needed to find each new lung cancer case.

The current optimal method of checking lung health, CT scanning, was resource-intense and expensive, with diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer currently costing the NHS an estimated £307m every year.

In addition to those three health systems, Oncimmune said it was in dialogue with other regional health systems in the UK for use in lung cancer diagnostic programmes, with NICE guidance to provide further supporting evidence of the clinical utility of the test in conjunction with existing NHS delivery programmes.

“Detecting lung cancer early is key to improving chances of survival, whether patients have a nodule or not,” said chief executive officer Dr Adam Hill.

“The body of evidence supporting the use of EarlyCDT Lung in patients at risk of lung cancer continues to build and is increasingly compelling.

“In addition to commercial evaluations of the implementation and the use of the EarlyCDT Lung blood test in Wessex, Norfolk and Yorkshire, we are especially delighted to have been selected by NICE for full guidance.”

Dr Hill said the successful publication of its co-funded ‘Early detection of Cancer of the Lung Scotland’ (ECLS) study with the NHS, which demonstrated a 36% reduction in late stage diagnoses of lung cancer, had been followed by “intense discussions” with the NHS, leading to due diligence throughout the last six months.

“As a result of those discussions, we are delighted to be working with the NHS in three regions to start the work of implementing our simple blood test into clinical care to significantly improve the chances of survival for patients with lung cancer through early detection.”

At 1148 GMT, shares in Oncimmune Holdings were up 3.82% at 173.9p.