ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI (JULY 19, 2022) | Earlier this year, President Joe Biden announced plans to reignite the Cancer Moonshot with renewed leadership and new ambitious goals to ‘end cancer as we know it.’ As part of this effort, the President and First Lady Jill Biden have issued a call to action to prioritize progress on cancer screening and to ensure that all Americans benefit from advances in cancer prevention. In response, the national advocacy organization Fight Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC) convened a group of colorectal cancer (CRC) advocacy and industry leaders to answer that call.
On July 25, 2022, Andrew Barnell, CEO and Co-founder of Geneoscopy, and 18 others will join Fight CRC at the White House to discuss their shared response to the President’s call to action to improve and increase access to CRC screening, with a particular emphasis on reaching the underserved and the 44 million people who need to be screened.
These advocacy and industry leaders are coming together and supporting efforts that speak to their shared commitment to helping increase access to colorectal cancer screening for all Americans. The group will explore both policy solutions and ideas for public-private partnerships that will help meet the President’s Cancer Moonshot goals.
“We have a moral responsibility to work together on issues critical to population health such as colorectal cancer early diagnosis and prevention,” said Andrew Barnell, CEO and Co-founder of Geneoscopy. “By coming together, we can develop more universal solutions, more effectively address screening inequities, provide broader access to screening, and better meet the needs of patients and health care professionals. Coming together around these common ideals will allow us to save more lives.”
Although colorectal cancer is preventable with timely screening and highly treatable if caught early, one in three people are not up to date with colorectal cancer screening. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this, and in a recent analysis by Komodo Health, new CRC diagnoses were down more than 32%. Despite the availability of several safe and effective CRC screening options, CRC remains the No. 2 overall cancer killer for men and women combined, with communities of color seeing even higher incidence and mortality rates.
“We commend the bold vision to fight cancer by President Biden and the Moonshot program,” said Anjee Davis, President of Fight CRC. “It is our hope as catalysts for the colorectal cancer community that with this meeting, we can address inequities within colorectal cancer screening and make progress toward our Path to a Cure. Prevention plays a huge role in ending colorectal cancer. The White House asked for a plan to get more people screened, and we are here to deliver—leading with the power of the patient voice.”
Participants who will be attending the White House Meeting:
Carolyn Aldigé – Prevent Cancer Foundation, Founder
Alexey Aleshin, MD – Natera, General Manager, Early Cancer Detection
Andrew Barnell, MBA – Geneoscopy Inc., CEO & Co-Founder
Danielle Carnival, PhD – White House Cancer Moonshot, Coordinator
Austin Chiang, MD, MPH – Medtronic, CMO
Kevin Conroy – Exact Sciences, CEO
Anjee Davis, MPPA – Fight Colorectal Cancer, President
AmirAli Talasaz, PhD – Guardant Health, Co-CEO
Greg Hamilton, MBA – Epigenomics, CEO
Lisa Lacasse – American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), President David Lieberman, MD, AGAF – American Gastroenterological Association, Former President
Molly McDonnell – Fight Colorectal Cancer, Director of Advocacy
Arif Nathoo, MD, MPA – Komodo Health, Co-Founder & CEO Angela Nicholas, MD – Fight Colorectal Cancer, Board Member Mike Nolan, MBA – Freenome, CEO
AmirAli Talasaz, PhD – Guardant Health, Co-CEO
Catharine Young, MPA – Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), Senior Director The meeting will be closed; however, for photos, b-roll or official comments before or after
the roundtable, please contact media@fightcrc.org or media@geneoscopy.com.
About Fight Colorectal Cancer
Fight Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC) is a leading patient-empowerment and advocacy organization in the United States, providing balanced and objective information on colon and rectal cancer research, treatment, and policy. We are relentless champions of hope, focused on funding promising, high-impact research endeavors while equipping advocates to influence legislation and policy for the collective good. Learn more at FightCRC.org.
About Geneoscopy Inc.
Geneoscopy Inc. is a life sciences company focused on the development of diagnostic tests for gastrointestinal health. Geneoscopy’s lead diagnostic uses stool-derived eukaryotic RNA (seRNA) to detect colorectal cancer and precancerous adenomas. This device was awarded Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. FDA for its ability to reduce morbidity associated with colorectal cancer through advanced adenoma detection. Indicative of its breakthrough status, preliminary trials suggest that the diagnostic can detect these lesions at a higher rate than all existing noninvasive screening tests. Visit geneoscopy.com to learn more.
Geneoscopy Inc. Forward-Looking Statements
The information contained in this release includes information about Geneoscopy’s future plans concerning its noninvasive molecular test that can detect colorectal cancer and precancerous adenomas, and as such constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s reasonable estimates of future results or trends. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of the Company’s control. Geneoscopy’s actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that its business plans and objectives reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, such plans or objectives may not be achieved, and the actual results may differ substantially from the projected results.