Team:BGIC-Union/HP/Gold Integrated

Safety

Gold/integrated


Integrated human practice


We investigate 10 Chinese companies who provide ctDNA detection or cancer screening services. The investigation on current ctDNA detection services among 10 Chinese companies gives us a vision on the diversity of detection services and market share in China.

Conclusion:



Each company has its unique method to carry out service. It suggests there is no technology monopoly in this industry. Therefore our product can compete with others in technology aspect as we have our own method to detect lung cancer.

The time required to complete the service is between 2~8 days, except for EZlifeBio. It is seen to me that our product have a clear advantage in the length of time required because the detecting process can finish within few hours and the result can be read straight away. Similarly, EZlifeBio also sell detector and kit to customers and customers can run the detecting process. However, our target audiences are different. Their detectors are targeting hospitals or laboratories but our product is targeting the end user, patients, in this industry.

The outcome from each service is slightly vary but all of them provide an assistance in cancer diagnosis or cure. It is distinct to our product as we aiming to provide a straightforward result for customer to understand. However, our product shows its limitation in the result compare to other outcomes from those services. It needs to be developed to generate more completed result in order to compete with other services.



Integrated human practice part II



Communication with BGI product research department

Before we start to design our product, we consulted a staff who works in BGI product research department. She gave us a lot of advice on how to design a product and what should be the main concerns during the development of a product. Her suggestions inspired us to create a simple screening paper for lung cancer detection.



Peking University Shenzhen Hospital interview with Dr. Fang Zhengyu



It is our honor to discuss our project with Dr. Fang Zhengyu from Peking University Shenzhen Hospital. After we introduced and explained our project to him, he gave his opinions from a professional point of view. First, he questioned about the efficiency of using cell-free system to complete a series of reactions and the extremely low concentration of ctDNA in patient’s blood. Then, he also concerned about applying our design onto a screening chip instead of other product forms such as a detection kit. After that, we exchanged our opinions on those questions with Dr. Fang Zhengyu. It is greatl to have others opinion on our project. Dr. Fang’s suggestions helped us improve the design of our product and we decided to carry out further experiments to teat the efficiency of the screening paper.



Product portfolio



Abstract



According to our investigation above, there are already all kinds of ctDNA detecting services existed in the market. Therefore, it is hard to compete with those developed products. Our well designed paper chip has its own unique selling points which can open up a new small market. It is aiming to provide a fast and efficient method to detect ctDNA in individuals, leading to an early diagnosis of lung cancer or a monitor on cancer recurrence.

Market analysis



1. lung cancer in China







1.Trends in Incidence Rates (Age-Standardized to the Segi Standard Population) for Selected Cancers for Males:

China, 2000 to 2011.



Among the 10 most common cancers considered in the temporal trend analyses for men, lung cancer always has the highest incidence rate in China between 2000 and 2011, contributed almost 0.05% each year.



2.Trends in Incidence Rates (Age-Standardized to the Segi Standard Population) for Selected Cancers for Females: China, 2000 to 2011.

For women, even though lung cancer has a lower incidence rate than that of men, it still has the second highest incidence rate in China.





3.Trends in Mortality Rates (Age-Standardized to the Segi Standard Population) for Selected Cancers for Males: China, 2000 to 2011.



A similar trend can also be found in the mortality rate of lung cancer compares to the incidence rate trend for males. The mortality rate fluctuated marginally just below 0.05% over 12 years.

4.Trends in Mortality Rates (Age-Standardized to the Segi Standard Population) for Selected Cancers for Females: China, 2000 to 2011.



The lung cancer mortality rate for female experienced a slightly decrease to just below 0.01% in 2011.

From the graphs above, lung cancer can be seen as one of the biggest threat to Chinese people’s health, with both high incidence and mortality rate. Only minor differences can be found between the incidence and mortality rate for both males and females indicate that lung cancer is still a life-taking disease with a low chance to be cured in individuals. One of the reason for this is lung cancer always can only be detected and diagnosed when it is already developed into stage 3 or 4. At this stage, cancer has spread into rest of the body which causes the difficulty to cure. Our product can provide a simple, low cost, and efficient way to carry out early lung cancer detection. It is also easy to use which individuals can detect their ctDNA for lung cancer by themselves before going to hospital for a more detailed check.





5.Age-Standardized (Segi Standard Population) Incidence Rates for All Cancers Combined and Estimated New Cases (Thousands) for Selected Cancers in China, 2015, by Geographic Location (partial)





6.Age-Standardized (Segi Standard Population) Mortality Rates for All Cancers Combined and Estimated Deaths (Thousands) for Selected Cancers in China, 2015, by Geographic Location (partial)

Both tables show a huge proportion of lung cancer patients is found in the rural areas in China. Those areas may have their limitation in public health care and medical services. Our product can provide a cheaper and easier way to detect ctDNA which can helps the early diagnosis of lung cancer.

2.Health check market in China

According to statistic data from ministry of public health, Chinese health market account for 373 million person-time in 2014. It had increased 62.17% compare to 230 million person-time in 2009. However, Chinese still has a relatively low percentage,27.27%, of people having health check each year as the population accounts for 1.368 billion people in China.

The number of people have health check each year from 2009 to 2014 (ten thousand)



Chinese professional health check market capacity is 1.6 billion yuan in 2015. It is predicted that the CAGR of the capacity of health check market will be 25% between 2016 and 2020. Health check market capacity is projected to reach 5.2 billion yuan in 2020. As people are more concern about their health, the health check market has a bright prospect.

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the capacity of professional health check market from 2014 to 2020 (hundred billion yuan)



.

Health check organization is an important link in the medicine and health industry. It connects with pharmacy and medical equipment companies and individual customers who comes to health check. At the moment, the service level and the market occupancy of different health check organization are become more and more distinct. The three biggest health check organizations, Health-100, Ikang health check, and Ciming checkup, occupy 36.2% of the market.





SWOT analysis

Helpful to achieve objective Harmful to achieve objectiv
Internal attributes of the organization Strengths:
- Our product has a simple procedure. Compare to the detecting services provided by companies, individuals can complete whole detecting process.
-This product is cheaper than other similar products and services.
-The criteria of detecting lung cancer is the ctDNA in patients’ blood. It can be found earlier than other symptoms of lung cancer, which gives an advantage in early cancer detection.
-The result is clear and easy to understand.
Weakness:
-At the moment, our product has it limitation on detecting a variety of cancer. This product only aim for EML4-ALK mutation in lung cancer. Only 4–6% of lung cancer involve this fusion gene.
External attributes of the organization Opportunities:
-According to the discussion on health check market above, China has a huge health check market with sustained growth annually.
Our product is easy to used and efficient which is suitable to be used in health check.
Unlike other lung cancer detection method, our screening chip provide detection services for a massive number of patients in a period of time. Therefore it has its advantage to be in the health check market.
-People are more aware to have regular health check to prevent diseases. More people accept the concept of “early discover, early diagnosis, and early cure”. Therefore an additional option for lung cancer detection during health check match the demand from patients.		 Threats:
-Public may distrust our product due to lack of understanding of our product. Therefore education is necessary before promoting the product.

Product Design

See Product Design

Conclusion



Overall, our product has it potential outcompete other lung cancer services and fill the demand in the market. The strengths of the product give it advantages to access the health check market but the weakness should be improved for our product to be used widely. We have to seize the opportunity in health check market but before that, wide promotion and education are necessary to prevent misunderstanding from public.