With regulatory nods, Niramai's AI/ML-based breast cancer test to go global

Company's solution has been used to conduct over 43,000 screenings in India so far. Niramai's breast cancer test comes at a 20th of the cost of a typical mammography test and detects 20% more cases

Today, around the world, there are very few effective breast cancer screening tests for women below 45-50 years of age. The thing is that over 50 per cent of women have dense tissue, which is normal. And mammography, one of the most popular screening methods, is not always able to detect a white spot--the signal for breast cancer. 

Think of it this way: an X-ray of our hands shows just the skeletal structure in white and the rest is dark. How well would it then detect a white spot in the hand that is distinct from the white contours of the bones?

In 2020, there were 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer and 685,000 deaths globally, according to data from the World Health Organization. As of the end of 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past five years, making it the world’s most prevalent cancer. 

Niramai, a deep tech start-up based in India, is trying to solve this problem through its AI/ML trained algorithms that parse through thermal imaging and detect breast cancer. The company’s solution has been used to conduct more than 43,000 screenings so far in India. It has over 50 installations at hospitals and diagnostic centres across 14 Indian cities. 

It was founded in 2016 by two women–its CEO and CTO Geetha Manjunath holds a PhD in data mining and the semantic web from the premier Indian Institute of Science and earlier worked with Xerox Research Lab. Her co-founder, Nidhi Mathur, is an MBA from IIM Bangalore who worked at Hewlett-Packard and Xerox.

The company’s patented diagnostic technique called Thermalytix combines thermal imaging with artificial intelligence (AI) to detect breast cancer at an early stage. A high-resolution thermal sensing device powered by a patented software developed in-house scans for any thermal abnormality in the breast tissue. Niramai’s software analyses this temperature distribution to generate a diagnostic report with a breast health score.

“We have been able to detect at least 20 per cent more cancers than mammography, according to clinical studies. This is why senior specialist doctors are taking us very seriously. Things which are missed by mammography are usually caught by ultrasound and MRI. So, we compare Niramai versus the three tests in one bucket,” said Manjunath.

Thermalytix takes 400,000 temperature values and analyses it using 120 abnormality indicators, thereby identifying high-risk patients who need a follow-up test. “We figured out that whenever there is higher activity, there will be higher temperature, oxygen and nitrogen levels,” explained Majunath.

Although diagnostics businesses are typically capex heavy, Niramai has managed to stay asset light through its combination of B2B and B2B2C models. On one hand, it has tie-ups with hospitals, diagnostic centres, non-profits who conduct such tests in camps and insurance companies. 

Manjunath said that there has also been a lot of inbound interest from online pharmacies and doctor consultation apps -- and it has tied up with a few of them to leverage their channels for sales. 

“A mammography costs Rs 3,500 and the cost of our test for a customer is just Rs 150 -- which is roughly 1/20th the cost. Also, the capex for a diagnostic centre is Rs 80 lakh for mammography, but only Rs 8 lakh for our solution. There’s also the reading fee which is lower for us,” said Manjunath.

In India the company provides an end-to-end solution for its B2B customers by sourcing the thermal imaging devices from an international vendor, it won’t act as a device distributor in other countries. This year itself, it has got regulatory approval to sell its patented screening method in multiple European and African countries.

But won’t scaling up internationally require more capital infusion in the company? Backed by marquee investors such as Pi Ventures, Binny Bansal, Axilor Ventures, and Ankur Capital, Niramai has attracted funding of around $7 million to date.

“We are being choosy on our side as we also want our investor to help us out with their network and contacts apart from financial support. I think we will raise our Series B round next year,” said Manjunath.