Italy and Japan for Fermiscan

Japanese company Hitachi Chemical has taken an option on an exclusive licence to operate Fermiscan’s breast cancer test in Japan and Korea.

Hitachi Chemical will undertake a six-month feasibility study on the potential of the technology, which uses synchrotron light to detect breast cancer in human hair.

Fermiscan is providing the test for free at the Sydney Breast Clinic, which it owns, as part of its validation program.

The company also announced that an Italian national health service unit which has been testing the diagnostic was planning to further evaluate the test in a multi-centre study in Europe.

Last month, Fermiscan signed a commercial user agreement with the Australian Synchrotron to secure weekly beam time at the facility in advance of commercialisation of the test in the near future.

Fermiscan currently uses the synchrotron in Chicago for its test and said using the Australian Synchrotron would be significantly cheaper.