14th December 2009 Madison USA: Kevin Conroy the CEO of Madison-based company, Exact Sciences Corp. says the number of deaths from colon cancer could be reduced significantly if people had an easy, reliable method of detecting the disease in its early stage.
Although a colonoscopy is very effective, the invasive nature of the procedure is a deterrent to having it done, he said. That has helped make colorectal cancer the most preventable yet least prevented cancer, he said.
His Madison-based company, Exact Sciences Corp., has set out to solve that problem.
Exact Sciences is in the process of refining a DNA-based test that can find colorectal cancer though a simple stool sample. The test can be administered at home and sent to a lab for analysis.
“It will detect over 50% of pre-cancers and it will detect 85% of cancers,” Conroy said. “Colonoscopy detects between 85% and 90% of cancers, so it’s pretty similar.”
But it will cost much less – likely between $300 and $400, compared with an average of $2,500 for a screening colonoscopy, Conroy said.
The test is not yet approved. It is expected to undergo clinical trials in 2011 and be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval in 2012.
After gaining FDA approval, Exact Sciences anticipates the test will have a market opportunity in the United States alone of $1.2 billion to $5.4 billion, as primary care physicians prescribe the screening test regularly to their patients.
“We’re taking it through an FDA clinical trial and then we intend to commercialize it broadly throughout the U.S., and then eventually globally,” Conroy said.
Exact Sciences isn’t the only company trying to develop patient-friendly screening for cancers of the colon and rectum, which kill about 50,000 people a year. But it is believed to be the only one focused on stool-based DNA testing for colorectal cancer detection.
Exact Sciences (ticker symbol EXAS) is the newest publicly traded company in Wisconsin. It was based in Massachusetts but moved to Madison last summer after Conroy was hired as president and CEO and Maneesh Arora became chief financial officer.
Conroy and Arora previously oversaw development of human papillomavirus molecular diagnostic tests at Madison’s Third Wave Technologies Inc. before guiding the company through a $581 million sale to Hologic Inc. in 2008.