The oncNGS project challenges the market to research and develop novel affordable solutions to provide the best NGS tests, for all solid tumours/lymphomas patients. The project will prepare and launch a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP), a competitive process enabling the buyers to compare the developments carried out by the contracted suppliers through three phases: solution design, prototyping and clinical validation of a limited set of R&D supplies. oncNGS was awarded a 10-million euro funding within the EU Horizon 2020 programme in 2020 and will last five years.

oncNGS is a strong consortium composed by eight buyers from five EU member states. Dr. Luca Mazzarella is in charge of the project for ACC. Among other partners are: the Belgian National Institute of Health and the Jules Bordet Institute from Belgium; Institut Curie IC and Hospices Civils de Lyon from France; Charité and Ludwig-Maximilian Universities from Germany; the Catalan Institute for Oncology from Spain. The buyers group will be supported by six entities with wide experience in their fields: the Spanish Agency for Health Quality and validation is expert in pre-commercial procurement, the Belgian Cancer Registry and the French National Cancer Institute are experts in cancer control, the Salamanca research Institute and the Cancer Institute Vall-Hebron are experienced in the field of haematologic malignancies, and De Clercq & Partners are experts in intellectual property rights.

The challenge that oncNGS will address consists in providing: (1) efficient molecular DNA/RNA profiling of tumour-derived material in liquid biopsies by means of (2) pan-cancer tumour marker analysis kit including NGS analysis integrated with (3) an ICT decision support system including analytical test interpretation and reporting. The PCP procedure has a twofold advantage, both for buyers and companies: buyers will acquire the innovative solutions at lower prices than the current market price; companies will exploit the results of developing an innovative product, including marketing.

The innovative solutions developed by the oncNGS project will provide an answer to urgent unmet medical needs, such as (1) the establishment of a validated common tumour profiling strategy to warrant equal access to innovative medicines to all; (2) the possibility to perform outcome research analysis after treatments with targeted therapies, currently hampered by the plethora of diverse genomic tests in use; (3) the clinical application of such essential testing to all patients, breaking down current unacceptable inequities due to the high costs of current diagnostics tests and their non-reimbursability.