OncoSwab: The Venture Leader Medtech developing a point-of-care technology to improve lung cancer detection

25.10.2024 11:00, Rita Longobardi

Meet Pablo Lara, Co-Founder of OncoSwab. The Medtech startup is creating a technology to detect early-stage lung cancer biomarkers in a non-invasive, fast and affordable way. In November, Pablo and the other nine Swiss National Medtech Team members will fly to Boston on a business development and investor roadshow.

Name: Pablo Lara 
Location: Delémont
Nationality: Chilean
Graduated from: Universad de Chile (PhD)
Job title: Co-founder and CSO
Number of employees: 3
Money raised: CHF 500K
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Referred from DayOne tech program
  Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
OncoSwab primarily operates in a B2B model, targeting health insurers and healthcare providers, with plans to expand into B2C. Our initial focus is on partnering with hospitals to introduce a pre-market Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) utilizing our innovative technology. Current cancer diagnostics yield over 50% false positives, leading to unnecessary biopsies. The OncoSwab-Test is a non-invasive lung cancer biomarker test using nasal fluids, providing accurate, early results for patients with incidental pulmonary nodules (IPNs). This test reduces false positives and unnecessary procedures, lowering healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes.

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
Our go-to-market strategy targets pulmonary nodule assessment. The U.S. sees about 1.6 million nodules detected annually, with only 3-5% being cancerous; however, 60% are lost during follow-up. The early market potential for our diagnostic tool is around USD 1.6 billion per year. Our technology not only addresses diagnosed cases but is also set to enhance routine screening for the general population. Expanding to the total U.S. and European screening markets—approximately 250 million individuals—could increase our market impact and potentially generate USD 250 billion in revenue.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
The EU TalentOn Hackathon, sponsored by the European Commission, was held in September 2022 in Leiden, the Netherlands. This event gathered 100 top scientists from the EU to tackle pressing societal challenges. Our team focused on the lack of accessibility to lung cancer screening and, inspired by the COVID testing model, proposed a COVID-like test for lung cancer, winning the pitch competition. We then committed to turning this idea into reality.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders Medtech roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
Our go-to-market strategy is focused on the U.S., leveraging a pre-market approach through CLIA certification. Through the Venture Leaders Medtech roadshow, we aim to gain valuable exposure and build connections with key opinion leaders (KOLs), investors, and other critical stakeholders in the U.S. healthcare ecosystem. This program will help us expand our network, gather strategic insights, and accelerate our progress towards achieving our vision.
 

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What are your team’s key achievements to date?
Our journey has been defined by several key milestones that highlight both the potential of our technology and the strength of our team.

• We’ve raised over USD 500 in funding, reflecting investor confidence, and validated our technology in a study with lung cancer patients.

• We recruited the Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at Mount Sinai, boosting physician engagement. The market response has been positive, and we plan to launch a clinical trial in 2025 across eight hospitals in four countries, with two sites approved. We’re also exploring partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies.

• Located in the Canton of Jura and the Basel Area, we have filed a patent for our non-invasive lung cancer detection approach and have been selected for programs like EIT Jumpstarter and Health Wildcatters, supported by Venturekick and the digital health nation innovation booster in 2024.

What is the most challenging and rewarding aspect of being a founder?
As first-time founders, we launched OncoSwab fueled by nothing more than an idea and a dream. We didn’t have data or funding to support our research, but our passion drove us to fully commit. Along the way, we faced significant challenges, including the need to shift from our original concept multiple times. However, one of the most rewarding moments came when we secured our first investors, validating not only our technology but also our vision. Seeing a dream evolve into reality, with people rallying behind our mission, has been an incredibly fulfilling experience.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
The key lesson I've learned as a founder is that things rarely go as planned in the startup world. Adaptability is crucial, especially in the early stages. With OncoSwab, we started with a focus on screening but redirected to nodule assessment after interviewing over 30 physicians. This shift aligned us with clearer market demand and accelerated our time to market, reducing the number of patients needed for validation by 100-fold, thus streamlining commercialization.

What is your favourite productivity hack/tool and why?
My favorite productivity tool is ChatGPT. While it’s not the best for generating data, it's incredibly powerful for organizing information, brainstorming ideas, and processing complex inputs. The key is feeding it the right data, when you do that, it becomes a highly effective tool for structuring thoughts, refining concepts, and solving problems quickly

What was your dream job when you were a child?
As a child, I dreamed of saving lives, which led me to aspire to become a medical doctor. While I didn’t pursue a traditional medical degree, I did earn a PhD and found another path to make a difference. Now, with OncoSwab's technology, I’m excited about the potential to save millions of lives and contribute to healthcare in a meaningful way.