Game-changing uPAR-targeting dye for guiding surgical treatment of cancer

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Surgery is a cornerstone in treatment of early cancer, used in 45% of all patients, although cancer commonly recurs after surgery due to incomplete removal. The residual tumour not only leads to avoidable suffering and even dying of patients but also presents a huge financial burden for the healthcare system. As such, there is a major unmet need to accurately delineate tumour from healthy tissue, identify local metastases, and aid surgeons to precisely remove the entire tumour. FluoGuide will deliver FG001, a breakthrough, real-time, surgical visualisation solution that lights up cancer and improve surgical precision during removal surgery. FG001 is the first active targeting fluorescent tumour marker that targets uPAR, a receptor extensively expressed (95%) in a wide range (>50%) of solid tumours such as brain (glioblastoma; GBM), breast, colorectal, lung and head and neck cancers. FluoGuide’s proprietary FG001 will revolutionise cancer surgery to improve the surgical outcome of >3 million cancer patients undergoing surgery every year. To realise this huge potential, FluoGuide is working on accelerating the development of FG001. Our initial focus is on GBM for which the prognosis is extremely poor with half of all patients dying within 14 months. Moreover, surgery is extremely challenging as removing too much brain tissue can severely disable the patient. FG001 can thus enormously improve surgery of GBM patients. The funding from EIC accelerator pilot will accelerate FG001’s clinical phase IIb/III study for GBM, and catapult FluoGuide to become a leader in cancer surgery guidance. We will generate revenues by 1) direct sales for compassionate use sales (2021) to showcase FG001, 2) direct sales in EU (2023), paid for via reimbursement by insurance companies and governments, and 3) roll-out to US and Asia (2025) through deals with large regional medical companies for local regulatory approval, and marketing and sales to ensure its full economic potential.