Genomics England has awarded a multi-year contract to Cambridge-headquartered Congenica to provide diagnostic decision support services that will underpin the delivery of the NHS’s world-first initiative to create a national Genomic Medicine Service (GMS).
Created through a partnership between the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the NHS, Congenica has established a footprint in the UK, US, and even China since launching, working on their 100k Wellness Pioneer Project.
Its clinical genomics interpretation software Sapientia has been validated within the 100,000 Genomes Project, with scientists using it for clinical analysis and genomic interrogation to obtain actionable clinical reports, and the company's new contract to deliver the NHS GMS follows a “competitive tender process”, according to Genomics England.
Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock announced earlier this year the ambition to sequence five million genomes in the UK during the next five years, with all seriously ill children and adults with certain rare diseases or hard-to-treat cancers to be offered whole genome sequencing as part of their care starting from next year.
“The UK has always been at the forefront of genomic medicine and the launch of the new NHS service further demonstrates this.
“The experience that Congenica has gained in working alongside the NHS and Genomics England to achieve this, [sic] puts us in a strong position to expand globally and integrate genomics effectively into other international healthcare systems,” said Dr Andy Richards, Congenica’s Chairman.
Towards the end of August, the firm announced that Wendy Britten was appointed as its new Chief Financial Officer, joining them from pharma giant AstraZeneca.
“By working with Congenica from the start of the 100,000 Genomes Project, we’ve been able to provide high quality variant interpretation of genome sequences to the NHS, helping deliver benefits to patients at scale.
“Now that we are embarking on the next exciting step in our journey to embed genomic medicine in healthcare, Congenica will continue to play an important role with Genomics England in delivering results to clinicians and diagnoses to patients,” said Professor John Mattick, Genomics England Chief Executive.
