Partnering to bring personalised health to more patients

Recent advancements in personalised healthcare have been massive, ranging from technology and diagnostic developments up to highly innovative and selective therapies. More than ever, it is critical to translate science into routine care, so that individuals can benefit from personalised healthcare and with this avoid partial diffusion of innovation. As a company, we understand that to bring the promise of personalised healthcare to life we must build an end-to-end view early on, from the conception of an idea to the successful delivery of a diagnosis and treatments to patients. That is why we are so invested in working collaboratively to sow the seeds of change towards how care needs to be delivered so that it reaches every patient. 

But how can we achieve this and what can we do differently?

Our goal to make personalised healthcare the standard of cancer care cannot be driven by one institution alone. Rather it is the convergence of expertise from different institutions that will help accelerate change. Inwe’ve seen an upward trend in collaboration between public and private institutions and, as a company which prioritises partnering, we are committed to maintaining this momentum. These partnerships are integral in driving innovation, with each partner contributing their unique capabilities and skills to the overall mix, we have the chance to flourish in ways previously unimaginable.

InFrench President Emmanuel Macron made a commitment to make France – currently the fifth largest medicinal market in the world – the ‘first innovative and sovereign European nation in health’, as part of the Strategic Council of Health Industries. Together with Foundation Medicine, we at Roche are committed to supporting this advancement through meaningful partnerships and sharing of expertise.

Ourwith one of Europe’s leading cancer institutes, the Institute Gustave Roussy, is part of this. I am so proud to be a part of the team driving this collaboration, where we will work together to deliver the promise of precision oncology in France, by transferring a portion of Roche and Foundation Medicine’s comprehensive genomic profiling liquid biopsy technology to the Institute Gustave Roussy. This will allow its lab to carry out liquid biopsy testing for patients in routine care and in early clinical trials onsite.

Using Roche-Foundation Medicine’s liquid biopsy technology, the Institute Gustave Roussy will also create an innovative laboratory for genomic testing in coordination with various leading precision medicine experts, centres and institutions in France. It is our aim that this will give thousands more eligible patients in France more access toto support precision oncology, whilst accelerating the development of new clinical trials and driving better research and development through the collation of genomic insights and clinical outcomes. By enabling better evidence generation and increased access to innovative molecularly guided therapeutics in oncology, it is anticipated that this personalised approach to medicine will ensure health system resources are used more efficiently.

Ultimately, treating cancer requires a personalised approach and the unique combination of Roche-Foundation Medicine’s high quality testing and validated bioinformatics pipeline with the Institute Gustave Roussy’s expert leadership based on their three core principles of patient care, research and teaching enables this. I am truly excited by the potential of this special partnership and look forward to uniting in our shared pursuit of advancing innovation and providing cancer patients with better healthcare outcomes.

It is my hope that our partnership with the Institute Gustave Roussy will have a wider, global impact and inspire other countries to collaborate and adopt technologies that will help improve access to genomic profiling for patients and make precision oncology a reality for cancer patients throughout the world. I, for one, believe that we are stronger together and that by continuing to put patients at the forefront of what we do, we can bestow real change to health systems on a global scale.