Proximity, expertise and entrepreneurship. These are three terms that fit perfectly with the "medical ecosystem" Northern Netherlands. TRACER is a striking example of this. What began as a research project within UMCG is now an international company with offices in New York.
Tracking agents. that is the term that go van dam, ceo and co-founder of tracer, regularly uses to explain what his company does.
For Van Dam may have originally been a surgical oncologist, but for several years he has been first and foremost an entrepreneur. Together with his team, he developed a method to make the effect of new potential drugs visible in humans at an early stage of the development process.
They do this by using highly innovative molecular imaging techniques, also called molecular imaging.
Simply explained, it works like this: cancer cells are slightly more acidic than healthy cells. The fluid that TRACER uses, among others, likes a more acidic environment and thus seeks out the cancer cells. Luminous molecules in the fluid act as waving flags once a special camera is pointed at them. This allows a surgeon to cut away cancer cells much more precisely. The use of tracking agents can also be used in other disease areas such as chronic intestinal diseases, cardiovascular diseases and infectious diseases.
I am an entrepreneur now, but feel that in this role I can do even more for people.
The enthusiasm for working with this method is certainly present among parties outside the operating room as well.
The benefits of working with our method are obvious. In the pharmaceutical world, it is used to significantly speed up drug development. By linking the tracer to a drug, you can immediately see its action in humans. With this information, drug developers can make quick decisions on whether to further investigate the drug. Because only efficient drugs are developed further, millions of euros are saved.''
TRACER also saves pharmaceutical companies time. By generating imaging data on drug action in humans early in the research, often large and unnecessary animal studies can be skipped.
About four years ago, Van Dam quit his job as an oncological surgeon altogether to found TRACER with his business partner, Ari Aminetzah. ''I am an entrepreneur now, but feel that in this role I can mean even more to people.
Our technology continuously proves that the development of new drugs can be many times more efficient. Something that ultimately benefits patients. That's what I work for.''
TRACER uses its expertise to support pharmaceutical companies with drug development through molecular imaging. ''At our core, TRACER provides quality project management, high-level international expertise, and we rapidly generate accurate data that helps our clients make better decisions,'' Ari Aminetzah succinctly summarizes. ''We do all this in close cooperation with our subcontractors, many of whom are also located in the North. We manage the entire project from A to Z. Ultimately, a complete report comes out of this that clients, such as large pharmaceutical companies, can use to build their file and make strategic decisions earlier.''
TRACER does all this with one underlying goal: to make as big a difference as possible.