DiagnoCure Inc, a life sciences company commercializing high-value cancer diagnostic tests and delivering laboratory services announced changes to its enterprise structure to optimize its growth potential.
Henceforth, the Company will be comprised of two business segments: (1) administrative headquarters in Quebec City, holder of the PCA3, GCC and Shc patents, and (2) DiagnoCure Oncology Laboratories (DOL), DiagnoCure’s US wholly-owned sales, marketing and service laboratory operations.
The company will focus its product development efforts on the pivotal clinical study, called VITAR, designed to confirm the clinical value of the Previstage™ GCC Colorectal Cancer Staging Test on lymph nodes. As part of the realignment of activities, John Schafer, president and CEO of DiagnoCure, will relocate to the US, where he will lead the commercialization activities related to Previstage GCC, and the effort to grow the DOL franchise into a profitable full service specialty laboratory featuring diagnostic tests for colorectal cancer. Dr Yves Fradet, currently Chairman of the Board, will also become President of DiagnoCure Inc effective today.
This realignment, coupled with a selective reduction in personnel that maintains all of the company’s core competencies, is expected to allow DiagnoCure to preserve all the liquidity necessary to support its operations until the sales of Previstage GCC ramp up and the PCA3 test is approved for sale in the US. This approval is now anticipated to occur in 2011, following the expected 2010 submission of a premarket approval application (PMA) by DiagnoCure’s partner, Gen-Probe, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"The need for specialty service cancer laboratories in the United States is growing, and with new molecular diagnostic tests, the ability to fill that need is available. I believe that DiagnoCure can make a real difference with its Previstage GCC test, and the addition of profitable laboratory tests focused on helping physicians and patients make the best treatment decisions, is a winning formula for success." said John Schafer.
Dr Yves Fradet added: "DiagnoCure has been in business for over fifteen years now. We have proven that we can identify powerful and significant markers for cancer diagnosis, develop clinically relevant and reliable tests, and take the best route to commercialization. With the optimization that we are implementing today, we will focus even more on what we know and do best, and be in a better position to benefit from the expected growth of PCA3 and GCC test sales."
Source: DiagnoCure
