Health Discovery Corporation in Discussions to License Prostate Cancer Biomarkers
Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers
SAVANNAH, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2005--Health Discovery Corporation (OTCBB:HDVY) today announced that it is in discussions to license its recently discovered and validated prostate cancer biomarkers.
The biomarkers were discovered using Health Discovery Corporations's patented Support Vector Machine (SVM) discovery tools.
These biomarkers have been shown to accurately separate high-grade prostate cancers -- the most malignant form of prostate cancer -- from less malignant grades, with a high degree of accuracy.
This ability would allow physicians to tailor prostate cancer treatment to a patient's specific type or grade of cancer -- resulting in significant cost savings by minimizing unnecessary or overly aggressive treatments as well as eliminating the adverse effects that invariably accompany unnecessary treatments.
These new prostate cancer biomarkers have been patent protected by Health Discovery Corporation and claims in the patent application are directed to each new set of biomarkers and their uses in screening, diagnosis and treatment of prostate disease
Dr. Thomas A. Stamey, who is Professor and Founding Chairman of the Department of Urology at Stanford University School of Medicine and currently holds the Thomas A. Stamey Endowed Research Chair in Urology at Stanford University School of Medicine commented: "At this point in time when the PSA has been shown to be ineffective in identifying clinically significant prostate cancer, Health Discovery Corporation's recent biomarker discovery creating a genomic based test that separates grade 4/5 prostate cancer, the most malignant and clinically significant type of prostate cancer from BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy) and normal prostate with a very high degree of accuracy is an exciting and outstanding accomplishment."
When previously asked about this prostate cancer discovery, Dr Herbert Fritsche, Professor and Chief of Clinical Chemistry at M.D Anderson Cancer Center, stated, "This impressive new gene discovery will give us access to a new set of biomarkers in advanced prostate cancer.
We intend to use these findings to develop new diagnostic approaches for prostate cancer diagnosis and improve the clinical management of these patients."
It has been shown that, financially, PSA is without equal among cancer markers.
PSA sales, estimated at over $350 million annually, represents 40% of all annual cancer serum biomarker revenues.
The reason for its large market share is that currently it is the only cancer biomarker that is being used for screening
Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D., Chairman and CEO of Health Discovery Corporation, commented, "We are excited about our ongoing discussions with potential licensing partners for these prostate cancer biomarkers.
The right partner could provide an expedited clinical validation and commercial roll out of the product." Dr. Barnhill continued, "We believe that this new diagnostic test will identify patients with high-grade prostate cancer -- the most malignant form of prostate cancer, such critical and clinically important information is not provided by the currently available PSA test." Health Discovery Corporation is a systems biology-oriented biomarker and pathway discovery company, which provides all aspects of First-Phase Biomarker Discovery(SM).
The Company was established to provide pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies worldwide with newly discovered biomarkers used to create more accurate diagnostic tests, novel drug targets for more personalized medicines and new methods for detecting patients "at-risk" for toxicity-related events, thereby providing safer medications.
Founded in September 2003, the Company is headquartered in Savannah, Ga. For further information contact Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D., at [email protected]
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Acts of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove correct
CONTACT:
Health Discovery Corporation,
Savannah Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D., 800-965-3198
Email: [email protected]
http://www.healthdiscoverycorp.com
KEYWORD: GEORGIA Finance
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PHARMACEUTICAL MEDICAL CONSUMER/HOUSEHOLD BIOTECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE PRODUCT
SOURCE: Health Discovery Corporation