By Business & Finance 
Peter Keeling, CEO, Diaceutics
New Diaceutics Market Access Service will help pharmaceutical companies understand and manage the diagnostic reimbursement landscape
Diaceutics, the global diagnostic commercialisation company helping to improve patient outcomes through better testing, today announces a new service that will significantly impact patient lives. It will overcome obstacles to the reimbursement of diagnostic tests and pave the way for more patients to get tested, thus reducing the number who miss out on the potentially life-saving advantages of precision medicine.
Better diagnostic testing to help patients
In the 12 years since it was founded by Belfast native Peter Keeling, Diaceutics has already helped more than half-a-million seriously ill patients access the right medication through better diagnostic testing. The new Market Access Service will help the organisation help even more patients by reducing the number of tests rejected or delayed due to reimbursement issues.
The service will also ensure a significantly improved return on investment for pharmaceutical companies which invest heavily in each new therapy launch. Diaceutics recognises that the barriers impacting on the uptake of diagnostic tests, including limited or slow reimbursement, often lead to patients missing out on therapy. Therefore, ensuring better access to tests at launch can accelerate product uptake and benefit long-term financial performance.
For example, a recent survey conducted by the Association of Community Cancer Centres (ACCC) indicated that nearly a third of prescribers report reimbursement issues for testing breast cancer genes, which negatively impacts treatment decisions for patients. Additionally, diagnostic companies have not been able to consistently navigate all the country-specific challenges, often leading to delayed or insufficient reimbursement in key geographies.
Helping pharmaceutical companies understand the reimbursement landscape
Diaceutics’ Market Access Service relies on the company’s global footprint, underpinned by its diagnostic commercialisation method, as well as experience in delivering more than 300 precision medicine projects to date. It has experts located in the top 23 pharmaceutical markets globally who are now leveraging this method to improve test reimbursement challenges.
This knowledge and hands-on laboratory experience enable Diaceutics to help pharmaceutical companies understand the reimbursement landscape in individual markets, supporting them in overcoming specific hurdles. It will also help identify ways to effectively navigate the country-specific challenges which often lead to delayed or insufficient reimbursement.
Peter Keeling, founder and CEO, Diaceutics, said: “By giving patients access to the right drugs for their genetic makeup, precision medicine is transforming patient care – and diagnostic testing is central to its success. Some $200 billion of future drug revenue depends on testing and 70% of future drug launches will rely on diagnostics.
The world’s pharmaceutical companies have invested heavily in precision medicine, however they often find that patients aren’t being tested for their highly effective therapies due to reimbursement issues. This can mean that patients miss out on potentially life-saving drugs and pharmaceutical companies lose potential revenues.
He continued: “Reimbursement for an ‘expensive’ test upfront can save tens-of-thousands of dollars of unnecessary treatment down the road and can accelerate delivery of the best available treatment for patients. This new service draws on our extensive knowledge, laboratory experience and market access expertise. Diaceutics is in a unique position in that it will be able to help pharmaceutical companies understand the specific and varying nuances surrounding reimbursement and assist them in driving their reimbursement strategies early – and ultimately, we can help save patient lives.”
