General Electric is pouring $100 million into breast cancer research. The project is looking to develop promising, new cancer diagnostic tools and products.
NEW YORK - General Electric
is pledging to invest $1 billion in cancer research over the next five years
and the company announced an innovation challenge to spur development of
cancer diagnostics and treatments.
GE CEO Jeff Immelt launched
a six-month $100 million project as part of the company's
"healthymagination" initiative at a press event here on Sept. 15. GE
plans to fund promising ideas to improve breast cancer diagnostics, Immelt said
at the event. Winning ideas will receive $100,000 in seed grants to bring the
products and tools to market.
The goal is to help health
care professionals better understand tumors associated with triple negative
cancer, a type that is less responsive to standard treatments and typically
more aggressive. The challenge will also focus on finding molecular
similarities between breast cancer and other solid tumors, which would improve
early detection, allow more accurate diagnoses and help doctors make treatment
decisions, according to GE.
"We want to push the
accelerator on innovation and research" on breast cancer treatment, Lisa
Kennedy, director of strategic marketing at GE's healthymagination, told
eWEEK. "Eight million people die each year of cancer. We feel
that is unacceptable," she added.
GE will also invest in
research and development programs to expand its suite of technologies for
cancer detection and treatment, beginning with breast cancer, Immelt said.
GE envisions "a day
when cancer is no longer a deadly disease," but a chronic one that
patients can manage with targeted treatment, Immelt said.
While the current
initiatives focused on breast cancer, the company plans to expand research
initiatives into other types of cancer. Breast cancer was picked because of the
sheer number of patients stricken with the disease worldwide and also because
GE already had a "strong knowledge" of breast cancer diagnostics,
treatment and monitoring, said Kennedy.
Cancer research is at a
"tipping point," and what is discovered in the next five years will
"change treatment more than anything that has been done in the past 100
years," Kennedy said. The challenge will bring together researchers from
around the world to collaborate and share information, "because someone
out there already has the answer," she said.
There are several tracks to
the challenge, including a data track, Kennedy said. The data track will
consider proposals based on analyzing the volume of data that is currently
being collected. Oncologists and radiologists told GE that they are frustrated
that there's no way for them to look at a cohort of patients and figure out
trending data to predict treatment results and what the disease will do next,
according to Kennedy.
GE is investing in a
"super database" that will consolidate clinical, pathology, therapy
and outcomes data in one place to enable analysis and further accelerate
innovation. The database would be available in collaboration with leading
cancer research, nongovernmental organizations and government organizations.
GE will also look for
promising ideas that are unlikely to get traditional funding because they are
too early in the stage to have any immediate commercial advantage and the time
to market is still several years out, Kennedy said.
A committee of
representatives from GE and participating venture capital partner firms will
evaluate entrants. Selected entries will be judged by a panel of GE executives,
venture capital firms and "health care luminaries," including former
Food FDA Commissioner and National Cancer Institute Director Andrew von
Eschenbach, Professor of Surgery and Director of the University of Michigan
Breast Care Center Lisa Newman, and cancer medicine specialist and Professor of
Cancer Medicine at Imperial College Justin Stebbing. The competition is already
open to entries, and winners will be announced in the first quarter of 2012, GE
said.
"As we saw through the
success of the ecomagination challenge, innovation can be transformational, and
good ideas that drive change can come from anywhere," said Risa Stack,
partner at Kleiner, Perkins and Caulfield & Byers, one of the venture
capital firms involved with the challenge.
GE also discussed innovations
to improve screening and breast cancer diagnosis, as well as to help doctors
identify the right therapy for patients. SenoCase is an ultra-portable
mammography device concept that will shrink the traditional system into an
affordable unit the size of a suitcase. SenoCase will potentially transform
access to breast health screenings for millions of women around the world.
While it's still a concept, Kennedy said SenoCase is on the product roadmap and
the company expects to have something to market in the next five years.
GE previewed SenoBright, a
Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography technique that provides more precise
identification of breast cancer, which is currently pending clearance by the
Food and Drug Administration. The imaging technique combines digital
mammography, low- and high-level X-rays and a common contrast agent to better
detect incidences of cancer and to select candidates for biopsies. SenoBright will
reduce unneeded procedures and improve the doctor's ability to treat patients.
Although not available in the United States, GE has installed SenoBright in 17
care centers across Europe and Asia.
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