Amadix is a Spanish biotechnology company specialising in early cancer detection through liquid biopsy and artificial intelligence (AI). This scale-up – a member of our New Biotech Platforms market group – develops blood-based diagnostic tests designed to identify cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages, with a focus on colorectal, pancreatic and lung cancers.

We spoke with Pauline Dapena-Cherry, U.S. Chief Operating Officer, about Amadix’s life-changing solutions and the team powering them.

Bringing precision and prevention to cancer diagnostics

Detecting cancer early greatly improves patient outcomes. Late-stage colorectal cancer has a five-year survival rate below 14%, but early-stage detection can increase survival rates to over 90%. In the case of colorectal cancer, early intervention can even prevent the disease entirely.

The scale-up’s lead product, PreveCol, is a colorectal cancer screening test that detects not only existing cancer but also precancerous lesions. These lesions can then be removed during a colonoscopy, preventing cancer from developing.

Amadix is also advancing two additional diagnostic tests: PancreaDix, for pancreatic cancer, and DiagnoLung, for lung cancer. Both are designed for individuals who have undergone diagnostic testing due to symptoms but received inconclusive results. These tests help assess cancer risk more precisely, distinguishing between malignant and non-malignant conditions.

Amadix’s comprehensive approach enables the detection of early cancer signals by applying a multi-omic strategy that analyses proteins, microRNAs and DNA. Combined with an advanced AI platform, the company integrates molecular data with clinical and imaging information to uncover additional risk factors and enhance early detection accuracy.

Clear mission since day one

Amadix’s mission is to make early cancer detection a global standard of care. Since the company’s founding in 2010, Amadix has remained fully dedicated to this focus, developing technologies that identify cancer and precancerous lesions before symptoms appear. 

After discovering an optimal combination of biomarkers capable of detecting early-stage disease, the company integrated advanced machine learning and deep learning methods to enhance its predictive algorithms. It further refined these models by incorporating patients’ clinical and imaging data, particularly for lung and pancreatic cancer diagnostics, to increase accuracy.

This focus has led to PreveCol receiving the FDA Breakthrough Device Designation. PreveCol demonstrates 54% sensitivity in detecting advanced adenomas – precancerous lesions – compared with 13% for other blood-based tests and 46% for stool-based alternatives. By identifying these lesions early, the test can guide timely colonoscopy and preventive treatment, significantly reducing cancer incidence and healthcare costs.

The driving forces behind Amadix’s growth

Amadix’s founder and CEO, Rocío Arroyo, has 27 years of experience in diagnostics and cancer detection. She also serves as the president of the AseBio (Spanish Association of Bio-Companies). An inspiring and ambitious leader, Arroyo has built a highly qualified international team with multidisciplinary expertise – including leaders such as CSO Lourdes Planelles Carazo and COO Elena Sánchez-Viñes. The team brings together specialists in bioinformatics, clinical analysis, data science and biomedical engineering, as well as an investor team that understands what it takes. Pauline said: 

“We’ve been around for some time, but these types of companies ultimately require lengthy processes – identifying the right biomarkers and completing clinical studies takes time. That’s why it’s so important to have the right investors supporting us along the way.”

According to Pauline, one of Amadix’s main challenges in its early stages was gaining visibility among investors and potential partners before tangible results were available. She notes that public innovation grants and the commitment of early investors who believed in the company’s mission were instrumental in driving Amadix’s development.

Another challenge for Amadix was retaining its management team during the early stages, when uncertainty around funding for upcoming projects and studies was high. Pauline highlights that Rocío Arroyo’s ambitious yet inspiring leadership has been key to overcoming this. By staying closely connected with all team members and ensuring alignment across the organisation, she has succeeded in keeping the team highly motivated.

Leveraging European support to accelerate global breakthroughs

As a growing biotechnology company, Amadix values every milestone on its path toward innovation in early cancer detection. Among its most significant achievements is the completion of a large-scale European prospective study involving more than 3,300 participants across hospitals in Germany and Poland. Conducted under real-world conditions, this study validated the robustness of Amadix’s approach and served as the foundation for obtaining CE marking in Europe and FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for PreveCol.

Building on these results, Amadix has entered a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, which selected the company from a shortlist of global innovators to support the upcoming U.S. clinical validation study planned for early next year. This partnership underscores Amadix’s growing international recognition and its commitment to advancing early cancer detection worldwide.

Pauline shared that the EIC Scaling Club has been “extremely helpful” in granting Amadix “exclusive access to investors and partners and industry leaders, [..] as well as mentoring programs, which [our team members] have attended and have been really impressed with the quality.” She adds that the company has found great value in the Club’s events which have allowed the Amadix team to connect with investors and partners. She explained: 

“Through the partnering system, we can easily arrange meetings with investors and follow up with them afterwards. As we are currently raising a Series A financing round of 40 million euros to fund the U.S. clinical validation study for PreveCol, having access to the events organised by the EIC Scaling Club – and the select investors interested in our technology – has been a major advantage.”

Pauline noted that the public visibility generated by the programme has given Amadix a stronger voice at the European level and opened doors that would have been difficult to reach otherwise. She also emphasised the importance of European funding, which has been essential for sustaining innovation in a field that requires long timelines to deliver results and build investor confidence. According to Pauline, this support enables Amadix to compete internationally with companies based in the U.S. and China, providing the resources and access needed to bring its tests to market and ultimately improve patient outcomes through earlier cancer detection.

About the EIC Scaling Club

The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.

The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.

The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.

Subscribe to our newsletter here to stay up-to-date!