{"id":463029,"date":"2025-09-30T12:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/463029\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T12:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:15:16","slug":"govt-backed-endometriosis-test-in-france-faces-scrutiny-channels-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/463029\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt-Backed Endometriosis Test In France Faces Scrutiny \u2022 Channels Television"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When France launched its strategy to fight endometriosis in 2022, it widely promoted a simple saliva test that was promised to revolutionise diagnosis of the little-understood disease, which causes debilitating pain in women across the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, after years of financial support from the government, significant questions remain about the effectiveness of the \u201cEndotest\u201d developed by French start-up Ziwig, several researchers have told AFP.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that a better test for endometriosis would represent a major medical breakthrough.<\/p>\n

The chronic disease, in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the womb, affects at least one in 10 women of reproductive age worldwide, significantly raising their risk of infertility.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:\u00a0<\/strong>Cannabis Extract Relieves Chronic Back Pain -Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"This photograph shows an empty bed in the emergency service of the hospital of Avranches-Granville, northwestern France, on December 31, 2022. (Photo by Lou BENOIST \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet women often endure a long and difficult journey to diagnose endometriosis, which can currently only be confirmed by an invasive surgical procedure requiring general anaesthesia.<\/p>\n

A saliva sample is all that is required for the Endotest, which is marketed as using artificial intelligence and new microRNA technology to diagnose the disease.<\/p>\n

Ziwig\u2019s founders have vowed a \u201crevolution\u201d that would enable \u201cearly detection of all forms of endometriosis, even the most complex\u201d.<\/p>\n

If successful, this would also mark a meaningful scientific advance \u2014 though the discovery of microRNA in the 1990s earned a medicine Nobel last year, the technology has yet to lead to a significantly impactful pharmaceutical product.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s support for the Endotest has not wavered, even during a turbulent few years in French politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ziwig project embodies French excellence in medical innovation,\u201d former health minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said last year.<\/p>\n

Current Health Minister Catherine Vautrin, who visited Lyon-based Ziwig\u2019s lab earlier this year, is quoted promoting the test on the start-up\u2019s website \u2014 unusual in the biotech sector.<\/p>\n

The government also pays to reimburse patients getting the test, a move estimated to cost taxpayers 21 million euros ($25 million).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What does the research show?
\n\"\"PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA \/ AFP<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Ziwig promotes the test\u2019s effectiveness, it normally cites two studies in scientific journals.<\/p>\n

One, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine in 2022, was \u201conly a starting point\u201d, according to Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at Britain\u2019s Open University.<\/p>\n

The other, published in NEJM Evidence in 2023, represented a \u201cuseful step along the way\u201d, but is not \u201con its own an adequate external validation\u201d of the test\u2019s effectiveness, McConway told AFP.<\/p>\n

Other experts said the participants in the research may not be representative. For example, the first study was based on 200 people in France who were already considered likely to have endometriosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we generalise a tool that was based on only one population?\u201d asked Bianca Schor, a women\u2019s health\u00a0researcher at\u00a0Amsterdam University Medical Center.<\/p>\n

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In evaluating who should be reimbursed for the test, the independent French Health Authority (HAS) said in 2023 that the Endotest demonstrated \u201cvalidated diagnostic performance\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the authority added that another study was needed to \u201cdemonstrate its clinical utility\u201d.<\/p>\n

And rather than recommending the Endotest to detect the disease early \u2014 as it was intended to do \u2014 the authority only reimburses the test after other imaging techniques have failed, as a way to avoid surgery.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other avenues ignored?
\n\"\"This photograph shows empty beds in the emergency service of the Hospital Centre of Avranches-Granville, northwestern France, on December 31, 2022. (Photo by Lou BENOIST \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some specialists pointed out that the government is spending just 11 million euros ($13 million) on endometriosis research under its women\u2019s health programme, which is around half the amount going to the Endotest.<\/p>\n

Ludivine Doridot, a professor at French research organisation Inserm and a coordinator of the programme, criticised this disparity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will not help other companies develop technologies that could have a positive impact in the future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other avenues to help diagnose endometriosis, such as improving how ultrasound scans are interpreted, also deserve public support, she added.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s health ministry did not respond to AFP\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Ziwig\u2019s president and co-founder Yahya El Mir defended the Endotest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other product worldwide that has this quality,\u201d he told AFP, maintaining that the published research provides enough evidence of its effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Leading scientific journals have also been approached to review Ziwig\u2019s clinical data, but this process \u201ctakes time\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

What do patients think? The French patient advocacy group Endomind has campaigned to make the Endotest available for all patients.<\/p>\n

However, Arounie Tavenet, an endometriosis patient and former member of the committee responsible for the government\u2019s national strategy, was more critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have hoped for accelerated processes for what is presented as a national priority \u2014 rather than exaggeratedly supporting the evaluation of a saliva test that raises ethical concerns and, ultimately, does not represent a major advance for patients,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 When France launched its strategy to fight endometriosis in 2022, it widely promoted a simple saliva test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[47879,2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-463029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-endometriosis","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115293200271076918","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}