HanseMerkur: ‘Krebs-Scan’ has closed a gap and can be a model for future innovations

HanseMerkur: ‘Krebs-Scan’ has closed a gap and can be a model for future innovations

Darmstadt, September 16th

NEWS

HanseMerkur: 'Krebs-Scan' has closed a gap and can be a model for future innovations

‘Krebs-Scan’ a success – “Test has closed a gap”

Since last year, the insurance company HanseMerkur has been offering a ‘Krebs-Scan’ based on our PanTum Detect® test, which can detect tumors at a very early stage with a simple blood test. The CEO of HanseMerkur, Eberhard Sautter, sees the offer as a success: “Tumors often lie dormant in the body undetected for years. By the time the first symptoms appear, it is often too late. And for more than half of all tumor types, there is no early detection at all. The test included in our ‘Krebs-Scan’ has therefore closed a gap,” said Sautter in an interview with the newspaper Die Welt on September 3, 2024.

Early medical detection that is as comprehensive as possible not only makes medical sense: “Thanks to new procedures and technologies, I also see enormous potential here for us as a health insurance company to differentiate ourselves from the competition,” emphasized Sautter.

No business with fear – “more innovations than ever before” in the area of prevention

The insurance boss rejected the accusation that HanseMerkur is trying to do quick business with fear: “Health is HanseMerkur‘s core business and remains our largest business segment to this day. That is why it is particularly important for us to offer more than our private and statutory competitors. We see prevention and health information as a particularly important growth area. This is because more innovations are currently being created here than ever before.”

Even more offers in early detection

According to Sautter, HanseMerkur wants to make even more offers for early detection and is concentrating “on cardiovascular diseases and tumors as the most frequent cause of death”. Small and innovative companies often do not have the capacity to launch their innovations in the complex German healthcare market themselves. “And our major competitors often have no interest in doing so either. For us, on the other hand, this is a great opportunity to offer real added value,” says the insurance boss.

Comprehensive information is essential

It is important to provide patients with comprehensive information before the examinations so that they make a conscious and voluntary decision. A product such as a ‘Krebs-Scan’ could be an example of this: “It is not prescribed by the state or a statutory health insurance fund. Instead, people decide completely voluntarily to pay a certain amount each month in order to receive extended preventive care and be better looked after in the event of illness. This can and should be a model for future innovations,” says Eberhard Sautter confidently.

Read the full interview online (available to Welt+ subscribers):

03.09.2024: Business with cancer fears? “We know of no study that disproves our assumptions” (only available in German)

PRESS CONTACT

Anette Ludwig
Zyagnum AG
Gräfenhäuser Str. 26
64293 Darmstadt
Tel. +49 173 769 68 22
E-Mail: presse@zyagnum.com

About Zyagnum: The Darmstadt-based biotechnology company Zyagnum AG develops diagnostic solutions for human medicine. Zyagnum has a profound understanding of immunological processes and their connection with diseases. For example, the EDIM® technology developed by Zyagnum can be used in blood tests to detect specific antigens in immune cells that may play a role in tumour development. Today, the company employs more than 50 people and was founded by Zyagnum CEO Ralf Schierl together with Johannes Coy in 2007. 

About EDIM®: When the human organism derails and runs towards disease, the immune system is often the first to recognise this, often before any symptoms. The platform technology we have developed, EDIM® (Epitope Detection in Monocytes), uses the mechanisms of the immune system to detect such derailments. The EDIM® technology examines macrophages for antigens that have previously been taken up into the cell interior by these immune cells through phagocytosis – this is why we also call EDIM® an immunological biopsy.

About PanTum Detect®: PanTum Detect® is a cancer screening blood test for the early detection of tumors. By means of a simple blood sample, it can provide indications of almost all cancer types in early, symptom-free stages – even for tumor types for which there are currently no established statutory early detection examinations. PanTum Detect® is based on EDIM® technology and detects the enzymes TKTL1 and DNaseX (Apo10), which both are increasingly produced in many tumors. PanTum Detect® does not diagnose cancer but provides indications of a potential cancer to be localized and confirmed in follow-up examinations (e.g. by imaging procedures such as MRI or PET/CT and histopathological procedures). PanTum Detect® has a sensitivity of 95.2% and a specificity of 99.5%.

 

*All cancers that form solid tumors (“solid cancers”). “Solid cancers” refers to tumors that grow as solid masses in an organ or tissue. Solid tumors are distinct from hematologic cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, which arise in cells of the blood or lymphatic system and do not form solid tumor masses.