The Oncode Impact Foundation, a joint initiative of Oncode Accelerator Foundation and Oncode Institute, launched today. It uses philanthropy to fund the development of new treatment options for cancer patients through the so-called ‘valley of death’: the crucial phase in which promising scientific breakthroughs often falter and fail to reach patients.
Cancer is one of the greatest global health challenges of our time. Although groundbreaking ideas and discoveries are constantly emerging in oncology, their translation into concrete treatments for patients is lagging. Especially in the early stages of development, where risks are high and funding is scarce, innovative ideas for new treatment options often fail or stall. This results in what is known as the 'valley of death', in which potentially life-saving innovations fail to reach the clinic.
The Oncode Impact Foundation was established to bridge this gap in a targeted way. By using philanthropic resources where traditional funding is scarce, the Foundation makes it possible to further develop promising initiatives and bring them towards the clinic. As chairman of the Board of Directors of the new Foundation, former KWF and Pink Ribbon director Michel Rudolphie fully supports its mission:
"The Netherlands is incredibly strong in the field of cancer research. Yet we fail to become a leader in translating scientific breakthroughs into actual treatment options. With the Oncode Impact Foundation, we use philanthropy to close this gap, where risk and potential come together in early development of novel treatments and where traditional financing falls short."
The Oncode Impact Foundation aims to support three types of projects early in the innovation chain. It concerns projects with high potential impact for people with cancer but insufficient access to traditional funding mechanisms like venture capital funds or government grants.
The first type of project that the new Foundation will focus on concerns early development and validation, in which promising scientific breakthroughs are carefully tested at an early stage to assess if they could potentially benefit patients. Secondly, the Oncode Impact Foundation will fund preclinical drug development projects in which advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), organoids (mini-organs grown in the lab), patient material, and clinical data are used to better predict which treatments are the most promising for different groups of cancer patients. Thirdly, the Foundation will financially support early-phase clinical studies, in which new therapies first reach patients that lack better treatment options and are further tested within strict ethical guidelines.
Mark Krul, currently Director of Aglaia Oncology Fund and CSO at Oncode Accelerator Foundation, will take over the day-to-day management as director of the newly launched Foundation. He explains why the Oncode Impact Foundation focuses on these three project types:
"In the end, only one thing matters to patients: that a promising treatment actually reaches them. Especially in early phases that things often go wrong now. That is why we consciously chose three types of projects: early validation of breakthroughs, then smart preclinical drug development with new technologies, and finally the first application in patients within early clinical studies. With the support of donors, we can make a difference at these crucial moments and ensure that innovations do not come to a standstill but are accelerated towards impact for people living with cancer."
With this new role, Mark will step down as CSO of Oncode Accelerator, but will continue to work closely with both Oncode Accelerator and Oncode Institute. Both organizations have a strong scientific underpinning and co-finance the promising projects in the early stages of drug development. This creates a leverage through which the Oncode Impact Foundation can help accelerate the most promising innovations towards impact for people with cancer.
The Oncode Impact Foundation, together with its partners, will connect science, philanthropy, and social engagement to contribute to a future in which cancer is increasingly treatable and ultimately curable.