SAN DIEGO, California – July 19, 2012 – FirstMark, provider of the groundbreaking cardiovascular blood test PREvent, announced the meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board, held today on July 19, 2012. The July meeting focused on the selection and planning of future clinical validation studies, designed according to the following priorities: an independent clinical validation of the test for coronary artery disease patients, expansion of clinical utilization of the test to a more generalized population, validation of improved outcomes with PREvent testing for medical management optimization, and the impact of the test on health economics.
“Each member of our prestigious Scientific Advisory Board has made extraordinary contributions to cardiovascular medicine and research. We are honored to have their expertise as we move into this next phase for PREvent. It’s an exciting time for FirstMark, now that PREvent has gained momentum for clinical adoption, especially among primary care physicians and internists” says Thomas Silberg, President and CEO of GenWay Biotech. “PREvent’s launch was based on the remarkable data resulting from the 4-year, 3,414 cohort study at Emory University. We look forward to implementing plans based on the advice of our scientific advisors for the selected future trials that will uncover additional benefits of PREvent for coronary artery disease patients, and expand utility of the test to other patient populations. Most importantly, the future clinical validation studies are designed to provide evidence that PREvent can improve outcomes for patients tested with PREvent, and have an impact on overall health economics of coronary artery disease patients’ management.”
The FirstMark Scientific Advisory Board is comprised of prominent cardiologist and research scientists including:
George A. Beller, MD, MACC
Cardiologist, University of Virginia Health System
Past President of the American College of Cardiology
Past President of the Association of University Cardiologists
Past President of the Association of Professors of Cardiology
Stephen Epstein, MD
Executive Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CRI), MedStar Health Research Institute
Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine
Former Chief of the Cardiology Branch of the NHLBI at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD
Arshed Quyyumi, MD, FACC, FRCP
Tenured Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine,
Co-Director, Emory Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute
Prediman K. Shah, MD, FACC, FACP, FRCP
Director, Division of Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Director, Oppenheimer Atherosclerosis Research Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Shapell and Webb Family Chair in Clinical Cardiology
Professor, Cedars-Sinai Professorial Series
Sergey Sikora, PhD, MBA
Sr. Vice President, FirstMark
Robert Wilensky, MD
Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Director, Interventional Cardiology Research
Peter Wilson, MD
Professor of Medicine, Emory Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute
Professor of Public Health at the Rollins School of Public Health
Director of Epidemiology and Genomic Medicine, Atlanta VA Medical Center
Co-Developer and former Director of Laboratories at the Framingham Heart Study, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Framingham, Mass
For more information about FirstMark PREvent and the Scientific Advisory Board, visit FirstMarkPREvent.com
FirstMark PREvent
PREvent is the first and only multiple biomarker blood test on the market that predicts near term (2-3 years) risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with suspected or confirmed, insignificant or significant coronary artery disease (CAD). PREvent identifies CAD patients in the top 4% at highest risk, and the next 17% at moderate risk of MI. The data showed an annual average of 16% of CAD patients with all three biomarkers elevated experienced a myocardial infarction or death, compared to only 2% of CAD patients with all biomarkers normal. It also reclassifies 42% of CAD patients from high to low risk, or low to high risk.
About FirstMark
FirstMark is Division of GenWay Biotech. FirstMark is focused on the development and commercialization of non-invasive diagnostic and health monitoring tests for unmet clinical needs. Headquarters are located in the heart of San Diego’s biotech community in the Sorrento Valley/Mesa area.
