Abcodia was one of nine finalists to present at the BioNewsRound Awards at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus near Cambridge and was voted the winner by the audience of peers who attended.
Two press releases about the launch of Abcodia's ROCA® Test, the world's first ovarian cancer screening test, that is now available in the UK, were highlighted by Mike Fisher, Abcodia's Director of Strategic Alliances, in his presentation - "Outstanding results from major ovarian cancer screening trial shows the high performance of ROCA®, paving the way for its launch by Abcodia", and "Abcodia secures funding of £5.25 million ($8m) to launch the ROCA® test for the early detection of ovarian cancer in the UK and USA".
Finalists had to show how their selected press releases were creative, significant and exciting to their own organisation, the life sciences sector as a whole, and to patients.
With support from press consultant Ellee Seymour, University College London and other partners, the news secured national and global media coverage and the press releases were mentioned in more than 1,000 tweets. The announcements resulted in a boost in the number of women registering their interest about the ROCA® Test (www.therocatest.co.uk) and significantly increased Abcodia's profile on the world stage.
Mike said: "Colleagues at Abcodia and University College London have worked tirelessly to reach the major milestone of getting the ground breaking ROCA® Test to market and the accolade must go to all those that have helped develop, validate and commercialise it. We recognise the huge importance in communicating the information behind the ROCA® Test so that women who are concerned about their risk of ovarian cancer will know about it. This award is all the more important to us as it was voted for by our peers in the life sciences industry."
Harriet Fear, CEO of One Nucleus, added: "The One Nucleus BioNewsRound Award is all about celebrating a fantastic piece of news - with the emphasis on how the project or activity has impacted on the organisation, the UK sector and ultimately the patient. Abcodia's work is world class and the team is an exemplar of how to do it. The One Nucleus team warmly congratulates them on winning this prestigious award."
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