Saliva tests to detect endometriosis are expected by the end of the year in France

Posted On: June 13, 2023

This is the breakthrough that many women have been waiting for for months. In France, 10% of them have endometriosis, mind you doctissimo, which represents 2.4 million women in the country. This gynecological disease is characterized by specific symptoms such as the development of tissue similar to the endometrium outside the uterus and in particular can cause acute pain in the pelvis and difficulty getting pregnant. While the detection of endometriosis is complicated and often very late, French biotech Ziwig, founded in 2019, developed a saliva test called Endotest® and published its first article on the subject in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. » in January 2022.

For this test, the Lyon start-up also received the Galien award in the same year, but on June 9 everything changed. The test has been validated as a diagnostic tool for the disease, according to a study published in the scientific journal NEJM Evidence – “New England Journal of Medicine”. Biotech confirms that Endotest® works well with a sensitivity and specificity of over 95%. This is also what makes it “the only non-invasive diagnostic tool whose effectiveness is undeniable and an alternative to surgery.” When questioned, Professor Horace Roman, founder of IfemEndo Bordeaux, spoke of a “revolution in diagnostics” and “tremendous prospects for patients”.

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Already in use in thirteen countries

Until now, Endotest® has been used in several countries: United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Switzerland which also received reimbursement. It will soon be used in Hungary and Belgium, Luxembourg, Kuwait, Qatar and Israel. How about France? The startup says it’s working with health authorities to make it available before the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, the head of the Reproductive Biology Service at the University Hospital of Montpellier, Samir Hamamah (also the author of the first report on the causes of infertility), believes that “early diagnosis of endometriosis makes it possible to identify the cause of this infertility and quickly adjust treatment. Endotest® is a saliva diagnostic test the first for endometriosis and provides a “reliable and robust” diagnosis of the disease from a simple saliva sample in seven days, according to Ziwig. It can be done anywhere in the region. Until then, there are two ways to detect endometriosis: abdominopelvic ultrasound and MRI pelvis, but the latter is often performed an average of eight years after the first symptoms appear.

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