What is the differential value proposition of Pangaea Oncology compared to other companies specialized in precision medicine in oncology?
Pangaea’s value proposition is differential by integrating the highest quality of care, advanced technology in diagnosis and pre-clinical models, and access for our patients to the best therapies in development through clinical trial units. This favors the generation of strategic agreements with the pharmaceutical industry, since a large part of our hiring arises from our ability to provide innovative solutions derived from daily clinical experience and the use of proprietary technology developed internally since the founding of the company.
Our differentiating factors are:
- Opinion leadership and talent attraction: 6 of the 10 best-positioned oncologists in Spain work in group subsidiaries.
- Volumetry: we manage more than 6,000 new oncological cases annually in solid tumors, surpassing other local private players, in addition to treating hemato-oncological patients, with a total of 80,000 annual visits, and an outstanding pulmonology team.
- Diagnostics and quality technology with the first accredited laboratory in Spain in molecular diagnosis in conventional biopsy (2009), liquid biopsy (2016) and New Generation Sequencing -NGS- (2020), in addition to more than 200 pre-clinical models at the service of our clients.
- Access to new drugs with more than 200 active trials, all under a firm commitment to healthcare excellence and patient orientation.
How have each of the areas (Comprehensive Patient Care, Laboratory and Pharma Services) evolved in the last year and what growth expectations do you have for each of them?
During 2024, the evolution was notable: the number of cancer patients increased by 93% up to 5,712 and the new ones Pneumology cases grew by 188% (3,287). Las total visitsincreased by 88% (82,041)and the surgical activity 72% (313 interventions). The clinical research advanced, with 84% more of patients active in trials (629 patients, 201 trials open as of 12/31/2024). These data drove an increase in revenues of 93% up to €14.3 million, with healthcare management growing by 89% and pharmaceutical services by 123%, achieving Positive EBITDA. Even so, great challenges remain, since the synergies from the latest acquisitions allow us to foresee double-digit growth and achieve operating cashflow in the next 12 months.
What position does Pangaea Oncology occupy in the different markets and which ones do you see as having the greatest opportunities for the company?
In it Barcelona private marketwe are leaders as the main provider of oncological services, consolidating ourselves in a reference hospital network. This allows us to predict that healthcare growth will come from intra-group synergies (surgery, clinical trials, diagnosis, ideas for contracts with the industry) and the recruitment of new patients both privately and internationally, with less weight at the local level.
In this sense, we foresee a sustained growth thanks to the diversification of income, the increase in patients and the incorporation of clinical opinion leaders, strengthening our ability to attract and retain talent, not just medical. It is key to highlight the work carried out by our people in administration, nursing, trial data monitoring, patient care, case managers, and programming, whose efforts support physicians and patients. In addition, we are committed to talent in business development and technology.
Although the healthcare part contributes and grows, the true potential of Pangaea lies in its technological value (diagnosis, pre-clinical, data technology), and we are going to develop a model with information and prediction in real time, as in genomics and early detection. With opinion leadership, volumetry, connection with the industry, and an advanced technological roadmap, all that remains is to mesh the pieces together to pivot towards what is internally called Pangaea 2.0.
How does Pangaea relate to public and private organizations to promote co-financed projects?
We have extensive experience with CDTI, European programs (H2020, Eurostars, NextGen), and national (Innocash, Torres Quevedo, etc.). These organizations are key for companies like Pangaea to be formed. Another thing, subject to extensive debate, is that financial collateral requirements (guarantees) are a great impediment for new companies regardless of their technological potential, and this should make us think about the EU.
What role do artificial intelligence systems play in your diagnosis and monitoring process?
The incorporation of AI throughout the health sector is evident and positive, since it will allow the optimization of systems that are sometimes not perceived as sustainable, especially in diagnostic scanning techniques. However, we are concerned about the inflation of expectations of its applicability (among others due to its regulatory difficulty), and above all because the importance of the clinical intuition that AI does not provide is underestimated. Time will separate the grain from the chaff. We are currently working on projects such as DIPCAN, to understand the potential of AI in patients with metastatic cancer and build appropriate platforms, learning about data needs and volumetry.
It has been an intense project, but we consider it very positive. In the current process, more than the basic tools that help us diagnose, some of which are based on some AI models, we are already carrying out “early detection” projects in pulmonary nodules based on algorithms using federated ML.
On the other hand, we are in the process of comprehensive mapping of the company after the merger of four companies in 18 months. We are currently at 5% of the Pangea 2.0 objective but the differential factor of this transformation does not lie exclusively in the technological design, but in our future inference capacity; that will be the key.