SAN DIEGO--- Accumetrics Announces $13.5 Million Financing; Diagnostics Firm Secures Funding Led by Essex Woodlands Ventures
Accumetrics, Inc., maker of the VerifyNow(TM) line of diagnostic tests, announced that it has raised $13.5 million in equity financing from a syndicate of private, corporate and venture investors led by Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. Other investors in the round are PTV Sciences, KB Partners, Telegraph Hill Partners and an undisclosed corporate investor.
Accumetrics specializes in point-of-care tests to evaluate the effectiveness of antiplatelet therapy, a mainstay of treatment for patients with cardiovascular disease. The company's lead product is the VerifyNow Aspirin test, which enables physicians to determine quickly and reliably if aspirin therapy is working for their patients. Accumetrics makes a similar test designed to evaluate platelet function with Plavix(R) (clopidogrel) therapy.
"I believe the VerifyNow tests are prototypic of the future of individualized medicine," notes Eric J. Topol, MD, chief academic officer of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and provost of The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. "We are keenly aware of a variable response to aspirin and Plavix, two of the most commonly used cardiovascular agents. By using tests like these to gauge patients' individual response, we will be able to maximize efficacy and safety and improve outcomes for a large number of patients."
Over 20 million Americans rely on daily aspirin therapy to prevent initial and recurrent heart attacks, strokes and other vascular events. However, medical studies indicate that as many as 30% of these patients may not receive the full benefit of aspirin's antiplatelet effect, a condition that experts call aspirin resistance. Additional data show that patients who do not respond adequately to aspirin therapy have a dramatically higher risk of recurrent life-threatening cardiovascular events.
"Research has now conclusively demonstrated that there is a link between aspirin resistance and clinical prognosis, so the millions of people with heart disease need to know if the aspirin they take each day is working for them," asserts Daniel I. Simon, MD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate director of interventional cardiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "With the VerifyNow test we have, for the first time, a specific, validated method to determine who is and who isn't responding to aspirin."
The VerifyNow Aspirin test was launched nationally in February. The Plavix test is now being used for research purposes only. Accumetrics plans to introduce the test for commercial use later in the year.
"This financing gives us the resources to aggressively move ahead with the marketing of the VerifyNow Aspirin test and to prepare for the upcoming launch of the Plavix test," notes Robert S. Hillman, MD, the company's president and chief executive officer. "Considering the tens of millions of people who take these drugs, the market potential is huge. We're now in a strong position to capitalize on this opportunity."
About Accumetrics (www.accumetrics.com)
Accumetrics has developed the VerifyNow(TM) System to test response to antiplatelet drugs used to prevent and treat acute cardiovascular disease. The company markets a first-of-its-kind test to evaluate aspirin resistance in patients taking daily aspirin. Accumetrics also markets a test for assessment of intravenous therapy with the class of agents known as GP Iib/IIIa inhibitors, and later this year the company intends to launch a test for response to clopidogrel (Plavix(R)). Each of these tests is designed to provide a new level of ease, rapidity and specificity to determine if patients are achieving adequate response to antiplatelet therapy, an important risk factor in protecting against heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular events.