Feedback PLC (LON:FDBK) Director of New Business Dr Balaji Ganeshan caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding with Alliance Medical Group
Q1: There was a significant announcement today, could you tell us a bit more about it?
A1: We have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Alliance Medical Group with the intention of integrating TexRAD texture analysis within Alliance’s lung cancer imaging service and this is a very exciting opportunity for TexRAD and Feedback on the whole. This partnership is exactly what we wanted as well, particularly with Alliance Medical Group, this essentially will take TexRAD into clinical practice within the NHS, specifically for lung cancer diagnosis and prognosis. What we’re trying to do here, with Alliance which is Europe’s leading independent provider of imaging services and actually the recipient of the ‘Diagnostic Provider of the Year’ as well in 2015 at the Health Investor Awards, is we’re planning to integrate TexRAD software within Alliance’s huge lung cancer service and network across the UK and the NHS to begin with and thereafter explore opportunities within Europe as well. This will no doubt be revolutionary in the sense that it will enhance lung cancer diagnosis and prognosis within the NHS leading to improve patient management and provide extremely valuable information for the clinicians and indirectly be very exciting commercially. So yes, very excited with this development.
Q2: What’s the background on this and how did it all come about?
A2: There’s been recent strategy change and flow of news which has built on and led to what we have been able to achieve today. Essentially, there’s been a lot of evidence academically for TexRAD in lung cancer, a lot of publications in high impact journals showing the ability of TexRAD to provide significant information in lung cancer patient management by analysing the CT textures and giving information about the prognosis of the patient. Feedback also, earlier this year, announced about the starting of the clinical adoption study in lung cancer by Professor Ken Miles in Australia where the potential was to see how TexRAD could be integrated with a lung cancer practice and understand the workflow integration and the implications for it. So that’s nicely started the ball rolling earlier this year and later this year in October when it was further announced that NHS made a significant alert about the possibility of TexRAD texture analysis to specifically be applicable in lung cancer patient management via the research arm that’s NIHR. So you can see all these news in lung cancer and other factors is actually taking us where we want to develop a clinical product and to begin with in lung cancer. If you ask ‘why Alliance’, Alliance is a huge entity and recently, again in January 2015, NHS England selected Alliance to provide PET/CT scanning services across around 30 locations in entire England and by December this year, 2015, they’ll be providing almost 60-70% of the entire PET/CT service in England which is a staggering proportion following a competitive tendering process and so on. So they’re investing about £80 million in this entire revamping of PET/CT infrastructure changes and education and training and so on so they are the perfect fit for us to work with and to integrate TexRAD into lung cancer patient management to begin with in the NHS.
Q3: So could you give me a run-through of the key points of the MoU?
A3: Yes, sure. So essentially, what we’re trying to do is provide a licence of TexRAD to Alliance for the purpose of integrating TexRAD within their network and system across the UK and to begin with, we’d start off as a prototype which will be tested at Guildford Diagnostic Imaging Centre which is one of Alliance’s flagship hospitals in the UK, this will lead to clinicians there evaluating TexRAD in lung cancer, undertaking huge multi-centre studies on PET/CT and texture analysis. The other component of working together in partnership with Alliance is to approach MHRA which is essentially the governing body in the UK to approve new technologies for its use in the NHS and get a CE mark for the use of TexRAD analysis within lung cancer and potentially also apply for NICE approval, NICE is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence within the UK, which recommends how patients should be managed within the UK, within the NHS. So we would need to approach them to get our service endorsed by NICE effectively. Finally, this would lead to a very exciting commercial proposition where both Alliance and Feedback together are hoping to develop a unique pay-for-service kind of a model for use of TexRAD in lung cancer within clinical practice.
Q4: So, if you were to put that in a timescale, how soon are we talking?
A4: So with regards to its stage progress, what we have embarked on right now is a prototype development pilot study, our technical team started discussion with the technical team at Alliance, trying to integrated TexRAD within their system which to begin with would start off in Guildford and then across the country. This is a stage process so within the next 2 or 3 months, we are hoping to integrate and start evaluation in Guildford and then expand that to the network across the country, then get CE marking and MHRA approval and NICE endorsement as well. So pilot study should probably be done in 2 to 3 months and maybe within the year, get data and approach MHRA and so on.
