US Firm’s Irish Cancer Success
Exact Sciences executives celebrate breakthrough with patients,
Executives from the US-based biotech firm Exact Sciences jetted into Dublin recently to mark an Irish health success story.
The early detection research firm, headquartered in Wisconsin, has been breaking barriers in Irish cancer departments and last month marked the milestone of e-testing 15,000 Irish women.
The revolutionary early-stage diagnostics conglomerate has received significant investment from US president Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot programme, which funds research to eradicate cancers.
Exact Sciences’ Oncotype DX testing helps to identify women who may safely avoid treatment with chemotherapy for their breast cancer. In 2011,
Ireland’s public healthcare system became the first in Europe to approve reimbursement of node-negative and node-positive breast cancer patients.
A recent study found that almost six in ten Irish women diagnosed with early breast cancer avoided having to undergo chemotherapy by using the breakthrough multi-gene test.
Ireland approved the use of the genome early detection in 2011, at a time when public finances were stretched. But as a direct result of government funding, Ireland was one of the first countries to use the test extensively and is now considered a global leader in breast cancer research.
Exact Sciences, founded in 1995, is now reputed to be worth $11bn with the firm reporting sales of $2.5bn in 2023, up 20% on the previous year.
The company’s Irish division, Exact Sciences Ireland Limited, recorded a net profit of €40,926 for the 2022 financial year. It had retained earnings of €236,656 as of December 2022.