Precision Therapeutics Transforms into Helomics™ Corporation
- Launches New Strategic Initiatives to Build The Next-Generation in Personalized Healthcare™ Company Focused on Oncology;
- Completes $60 Million Financing with HealthCare Royalty Partners;
- Appoints New Management Team
PITTSBURGH and LONDON, Nov. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Precision Therapeutics, Inc. announced that effective today the company's new name is Helomics™ Corporation (Helomics), a privately held comprehensive personalized healthcare company that develops innovative next generation diagnostics for the oncology field.
Helomics believes that each patient is unique, and their cancer treatment should be too. The name reflects the company's new strategic vision, growth strategy and in-depth approach to characterizing patients' live and archived cancer cells. The company is committed to advancing leading-edge and proprietary technology platforms in cellular analysis, genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics combined with a precise and personalized reporting system for tumor profiling and predictive analytics that help physicians to individualize treatment options for their patients.
The company's flagship product, the ChemoFx® Chemoresponse Marker (ChemoFx), helps improve patient outcomes by supporting physicians in the selection of effective treatments for women with gynecologic cancer.
New Financing
To support the company's new strategic vision, Helomics announced the culmination of a recapitalization of the company. This includes $60 million of financing provided by HealthCare Royalty Partners (HC Royalty), a multi-billion dollar global healthcare investment firm with a long and proven track record of helping healthcare companies achieve success.
New Management Team & Board of Directors
The company has significantly strengthened its management team with the appointment of Neil J. Campbell as President and CEO. Over the past three decades, Mr. Campbell has helped commercialize more than 275 life sciences products and services. He has held C-level and senior management positions at Abbott Laboratories, where he worked in the diagnostics division in sales, marketing and business development; Celera Genomics, where he served as Senior Director, Commercial Development; Life Technologies (now Invitrogen), where he managed the worldwide Cell & Molecular Biology business; EntreMed, Inc. (now CASI Pharmaceuticals), a biopharmaceutical company that develops therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, where he served as President and CEO; and SuperNova Diagnostics, Inc., a company Mr. Campbell co-founded and served as President and CEO.
Other senior level appointments include Dane R. Saglio to Vice President and CFO. Mr. Saglio has in-depth experience in finance and accounting having previously served as CFO at numerous public and private companies, including RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, New Generation Biofuels and EntreMed, Inc. (now CASI Pharmaceuticals). The company has named Ed A. Whigham to Vice President of Sales. Mr. Whigham has an impressive 25-year sales career in the diagnostics division at Abbott Laboratories and most recently as Vice President at Given Imaging.
Helomics' new Board of Directors consists of six prominent industry veterans:
- Todd C. Davis, Chairman of the Board (HC Royalty, Elan, Abbott)
- Neil J. Campbell, Director (Abbott, Celera Genomics, Life Technologies, EntreMed, SuperNova Diagnostics)
- Clarke B. Futch, Director (HC Royalty, Thomas Weisel Partners, Raymond James)
- Marc Kozin, Director (L.E.K Consulting)
- D. Stafford O'Kelly, Director (Abbott Molecular Diagnostics)
- Matthew Q. Reber, Director (HC Royalty, Oak Hill Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley)
Neil J. Campbell commented, "The marketplace for individualizing medicine is rapidly growing. With an even greater strategic vision and new management team, we believe Helomics is uniquely positioned to be the next-generation in personalized healthcare for patients with cancer and their physicians." He added, "Helomics is backed by one of the most forward-looking investment firms in healthcare today and with HC Royalty's support we will build the premier personalized healthcare company dedicated to the oncology field."
New Strategic Initiatives
Helomics will offer a more comprehensive set of services to help physicians individualize treatment options for their patients. In addition to the company's core products, ChemoFx, BioSpeciFx® and GeneFx®, Helomics will offer an expanded platform of Precision Cellular Analytics, genomics and proteomics as well as bioinformatics & personalized analytics, contract research & development and biorepository & banking.
The company will also be actively looking to acquire new and complementary products to enhance its personalized healthcare platform.
About ChemoFx
ChemoFx, the company's flagship product, is a proprietary chemoresponse marker which helps improve patient outcomes by supporting physicians in the selection of effective treatments for their gynecologic cancer patients. Recently published studies demonstrate a 14-month improvement in median overall survival when ovarian cancer patients are treated with sensitive therapies as identified by ChemoFx and show ChemoFx is predictive of treatment-specific outcome. Since 2010, more than 50,000 gynecologic cancer patient specimens from over 1,000 US hospitals, including nine of the US News and World Report Top 10 Hospitals for Cancer Care and 23/25 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Member Institutions have been submitted for ChemoFx testing.
About Helomics™ Corporation
Helomics is a comprehensive personalized healthcare company, bringing the next generation of diagnostics to the oncology field. We are dedicated to improving patient outcomes by utilizing a proprietary set of laboratory platforms and our product science as a service commercialization model to allow physicians to characterize malignant tumors. Our novel molecular and cellular markers and bioinformatics services are designed to support treatment decisions by providing vital information based on the specific biological processes of each individual's cancer.
Helomics is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where the company maintains two CLIA-certified laboratories. For more information please visit: www.helomics.com.
About HealthCare Royalty Partners
HealthCare Royalty Partners (HC Royalty) is a $3.0+ billion global healthcare investment firm. HC Royalty invests primarily in commercial stage healthcare assets that have significant clinical value, strong barriers to entry and that are marketed by some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. Over the past decade, the senior investment team has completed more than 60 royalty investments valued in excess of $2.5 billion. For more information, visit http://www.healthcareroyalty.com.
Helomics™ The Next-Generation in Personalized Healthcare™, ChemoFx®, BioSpeciFx® and GeneFx®, are all trademarks of Helomics™ Corporation.
Helomics Contacts:
Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc.
Josh Drumm, Ph.D. - Investors
212-375-2664
[email protected]
Claire Sojda – Media
212-375-2686
[email protected]
SOURCE Helomics Corporation
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