I 2021 viste Lægemiddelstyrelsens årsrapport om kliniske forsøg, at kun 2% af den danske befolkning deltog i kliniske forsøg. Det skyldes bl.a. manglende viden om emnet, usikkerhed omkring hvorfor man bør deltage, samt besværligheden ved brug af de eksisterende løsninger. Disse udfordringer resulterer i en betydelig omkostning for virksomheder, som i gennemsnit bruger omkring 43.000 kr. på at rekruttere blot en enkelt forsøgsdeltager. Industrien står for kun ca. 20% af de kliniske forsøg i Danmark, og det er primært på grund af den svært tilgængelige deltagerpopulation. Erhvervsstyrelsen estimerer samtidigt, at for hver gang industrien initiere et forsøg, øges Danmarks BNP med ca. 902.000 kr. Når man deltager i kliniske forsøg gør man en konkret forskel i samfundet ved, at hjælpe de mest sårbare med bedre behandlingsmuligheder, bidrage til medicinsk udvikling og styrke Danmarks position som forskningsnation. PROBE udvikler en patientdrevet forskningsplatform, som vha. AI og et brugerskabt design, skal gøre det nemt for alle at engagere sig i klinisk forskning, uanset sygdom- eller karrieremæssig baggrund. Innofounder-forløbet giver os mulighed for at udvikle vores MVP, som bruger sundhedsdata til at matche brugeren med relevante forskningsprojekter.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most prevalent cancer in women with more than 600,000 women being diagnosed globally every year and 341,000 dying. In Scandinavia alone 1,453 women were diagnosed and 441 died in 2020. Late-stage cervical cancer patients have few and ineffective treatment options and there is thus a high unmet medical need for more effective treatment options. Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is the most promising cell-based therapy against solid tumors and holds great promise also in cervical cancer where deep and long-lasting clinical responses and curative potential have been demonstrated. In the pro-novoleucel project we expect to further improve the clinical response of TIL therapy and build upon some of the most recent advances in immune oncology: By combining Cbio’s CPI-enhanced TIL product that generates a much broader T-cell repertoire with the pro-lymphocyte technology from Karolinska Institute that is arming the TILs against the hostile tumor microenvironment, we are simultaneously addressing two of the major escape mechanisms for cancer to evade the immune system. With a clinical proof-of-concept in cervical cancer, we plan to take pro-novoleucel through clinical development to make it a globally available product. Beyond this, pro-novoleucel can be extended into other solid cancer indications ultimately helping a large fraction of the 16 million people who die from solid cancers each year.