Roche collaborates with Ibex and Amazon Web Services to accelerate adoption of AI-enabled digital pathology solutions to help improve cancer diagnoses

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Oct 26, 2023, 01:00 ET

Roche's navify Digital Pathology software platform now offers Ibex's Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to support clinicians in the diagnosis of breast and prostate cancer.
Roche and Ibex cloud-based digital pathology and AI solutions run on Amazon Web Services (AWS), enabling a scalable and sustainable ecosystem for pathology laboratories.
This collaboration builds on Roche's Digital Pathology Open Environment on the navify platform, expanding the company's commitment to improving patient care and advancing personalised healthcare through innovation.

TUCSON, Ariz., Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today collaborations with Ibex Medical Analytics and Amazon Web Services, enabling pathology laboratories to access Ibex's AI-powered decision support tools to support clinicians in breast and prostate cancer diagnosis through the navify^® Digital Pathology software platform.

Digital pathology refers to the digitalisation of the traditional pathology workflow starting from slide scanning to visualisation to analysis. Digital pathology is transforming traditional histopathology by improving efficiency, depth of analysis, and providing an opportunity for collaboration in pathology workflows. The integrated artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools can be applied to help enhance clinical decision support, improve productivity and shorten turnaround time in pathology laboratories.

"This exciting collaboration brings powerful AI solutions to pathology labs," said Michael Rivers, Lifecycle Leader for Roche Digital Pathology. "Using the navify Digital Pathology platform pathologists can securely access third-party AI-powered technology alongside Roche's growing menu of AI-based image analysis tools in an efficient clinical workflow."

Ibex's AI algorithms help clinicians in the diagnosis of breast and prostate biopsies and provide efficient, accurate and timely cancer diagnosis, support case prioritisation, determine the cancer grading and subtype, and identify important non-cancerous features. All of this detailed diagnosis information is displayed seamlessly in the navify Digital Pathology solution.

The Ibex algorithms are used at laboratories and hospitals worldwide, and help clinicians improve patient care as demonstrated by multiple clinical studies performed in the United States and Europe^1,2,3,4. These algorithms are currently for Research Use Only, not for use in diagnostic procedures, in the United States, and CE-Marked for IVD use in Europe for breast and prostate cancer detection in multiple workflows.

"Our collaboration with Roche is driving new AI-powered workflows that help pathologists and laboratories realise the full potential of going digital," said Joseph Mossel, CEO and Co-founder of Ibex Medical Analytics. "The next phase in the evolution of digital pathology is open platforms that enable technology providers to join forces and offer integrated software solutions that improve lab efficiency, biopsy review and ultimately the quality of patient care."

Roche's solution and Ibex's algorithms operate on the highly secure and scalable Amazon Web Services. This cloud infrastructure provides customers with flexibility, security, computing capacity, responsiveness and confidence to accelerate the adoption of digital pathology and AI.

As cancer incidence and pathology workloads continue to increase globally, cloud-based services enable laboratories and health systems to safely, reliably and cost-effectively scale up the volume of slide images they analyse, roll out new applications, add new digitised sites to their network, and expand to new geographies.

About Roche Digital Pathology
As the leading provider of pathology lab solutions, Roche is delivering an end-to-end digital pathology solution from tissue staining to producing high-quality digital images that can be reliably assessed using automated AI-based clinical image analysis algorithms. We minimise variables that can impact analysis, and it is this end-to-end development that produces the quality results healthcare providers and researchers can depend on. With the acceleration of immunotherapy and the development of more complex assays, Roche is moving these traditionally research-oriented tools into routine clinical practice and is committed to investing in and shaping the future of pathology.

About Roche
Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the world's largest biotechnology company and the global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The company pursues scientific excellence to discover and develop medicines and diagnostics for improving and saving the lives of people around the world. We are a pioneer in personalised healthcare and want to further transform how healthcare is delivered to have an even greater impact. To provide the best care for each person we partner with many stakeholders and combine our strengths in Diagnostics and Pharma with data insights from the clinical practice.

In recognising our endeavour to pursue a long-term perspective in all we do, Roche has been named one of the most sustainable companies in the pharmaceuticals industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the thirteenth consecutive year. This distinction also reflects our efforts to improve access to healthcare together with local partners in every country we work.

Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

For more information, please visit www.roche.com.

In the United States, the Ibex algorithms are for Research use Only, not for diagnostic procedures.

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.

References
[1] Pantanowitz et al., An artificial intelligence algorithm for prostate cancer diagnosis in whole slide images of core needle biopsies: a blinded clinical validation and deployment study, THE LANCET Digital Health Aug 2020

[2] Sandbank et al., Validation and real-world clinical application of an artificial intelligence algorithm for breast cancer detection in biopsies; npj Breast Cancer 8, 129 (2022)

[3] Comperat et al., Clinical Level AI-Based Solution for Primary Diagnosis and Reporting of Prostate Biopsies in Routine Use: A Prospective Reader Study, European Congress of Pathology 2021

[4] Raoux et al., Novel AI-Based Solution for Supporting Primary Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Increases the Accuracy and Efficiency of Reporting in Clinical Routine, USCAP 2021

Roche Media Relations
Jo Lynn Garing, +1 317-363-7286