CEDEM AG joins German Genethics Network to establish an Optimizing Cancer Treatment Service named OptiCancer
Frankfurt, March 15th, 2017 – The FIZ Frankfurt Biotechnology Innovation Center and its German Genethics Network Partners entered into a partnership with CEDEM AG Germany. As a pioneer company working in healthcare sector, CEDEM AG will represent FiZ in the MENA region. 
FiZ, a market-oriented technology center, has advanced into an important reference point for innovation projects in the “life sciences” arena. FiZ offers companies and scientific organizations a platform for their innovation networks. At the same time, it acts as a network partner itself and connects active stakeholders from industry, science and politics – on a national and international level. The focus of FiZ synergy projects is placed on precision medicine and disruptive business models in the healthcare sector. For this purpose, FiZ together with leading partners builds internationally competitive Big Data and software solutions. The collaboration of FiZ network companies and partners in new markets delivers far more than just technology export: the purpose is to adapt existing solutions to the specific needs of the target market, to further develop them with local partners, and so to initiate innovation.
Within the German Genethics project FiZ aims to achieve a data-based optimization of cancer therapies through genetic profiling. The molecular genetic diagnosis of a cancer biopsy is being linked with the collected knowledge of cancer and its therapies. As a final service, physicians receive a well-founded individualized therapy recommendations for their patients that they can use as a second opinion or to confirm their own choice of therapy. This innovative approach is being introduced to the MENA region under the name OptiCancer, which has already been successfully presented during the 2017 Arab Health medical congress in the UAE.
CEDEM Managing Director, Ms. Rasha Oudeh, said: “MENA region with 256.000 estimated cancer cases, which is expected to increase to 365.000 cases in 2020, is an ideal market to be addressed with this approach. Cancer Care Program, a nonprofit coverage program at the King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan, has 110.000 outpatient visits and 3.500 new cancer cases per year. Cancer is a complex disease, which we fight joining expertise and know-how across the countries”. “We are proud to support physicians in the Middle East by establishing this pioneering German service in our region”, added Ms. Oudeh.

FiZ Managing Director, Dr. Christian Garbe, who is supported by Prof. Dr. Gerhard Steinmann, chairman of FiZ scientific advisory board, said: “We are delighted to work together on this ambitious mission of accessible genomic-based personalized healthcare, ensuring better care for individuals and better health for population. “