CAMBRIDGE, England and BOSTON, November 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Industry Veteran Brings Significant Diagnostics and Business Leadership Experience to Company to support US expansion
Abcodia Ltd., a clinical stage company engaged in the commercial development of novel, validated tests for the early detection of cancer, today announced the appointment of Richard A. "Dick" Sandberg to its board of directors.
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Mr. Sandberg has played a principal role in founding and building a number of medical diagnostic companies. Previously he co-founded and served as chairman, CEO and president of DIANON Systems, Inc., a leading publicly traded provider of anatomic pathology and oncology testing services (acquired by LabCorp in 2003). He has also held a number of diverse executive leadership roles, serving as chairman and chief financial officer of Lifecodes Corporation, a pioneer in DNA testing technology; chief financial officer and director of Matritech Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company specializing in proteomic diagnostic products for the early detection of a variety of cancers; and as chief financial officer of Critical Diagnostics, Inc., a company specializing in developing new diagnostic tests for cardiology.
He currently serves as chairman of the board of Oxford Immunotec Global, plc., a global leader in diagnostics for assessing immune conditions and diseases, and as chairman of OBS Medical Ltd., a privately held developer of predictive software for intensive care and emergency room applications. He also serves as a director of other private diagnostic companies in both Europe and the United States.
Mr. Sandberg earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Northwestern University and a master's in business administration from the Harvard Business School.
Dr Julie Barnes, CEO of Abcodia said:
"Building on 20 years of medical research and clinical trial data involving over 200,000 participants, we are preparing to launch our first commercially available product - the ROCA® Test for the early detection of ovarian cancer - and Dick's experience in bringing new diagnostic tests to market will be invaluable.
Dick Sandberg commented:
"Early detection of ovarian cancer represents a large and growing unmet medical need. Supported by results from the largest ovarian cancer screening trial ever conducted, Abcodia and the ROCA Test are well positioned to potentially transform how ovarian cancer is detected at an early stage. I'm excited to be joining the board of directors and working with the management team during this period of anticipated growth."
Andy Richards, Ph.D., chairman of Abcodia added:
"I am delighted that Dick has accepted our invitation to join the board of directors and look forward to tapping in to his experience in building truly transatlantic companies and working closely with him to strengthen the strategic guidance that the board can provide to management at this exciting time for the Company."
About Abcodia
Abcodia is a clinical stage company engaged in the commercial development of novel, validated tests for the early detection of cancer. The Company's first product is the ROCA® Test for the early detection of ovarian cancer, and it is also expanding its pipeline of early detection technologies for lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancer. Abcodia's offerings are based on expertise in measuring and modelling dynamic changes over time of serum-based biomarkers before cancer is clinically diagnosed, and it maintains exclusive commercial access to a biobank of 5 million samples donated from 200,000 individuals over a 10-year period. Abcodia holds strategic collaborations with leading global organizations including Cancer Research UK, University College London and other academic and industry partners.
Abcodia is a privately held company funded through investments from Albion Ventures, Cambridge Innovative Capital, Scottish Equity Partners and UCL Business. Headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., the Company maintains a U.S. corporate presence in Boston. For more information, visit http://www.abcodia.com/
About the ROCA® Test
Abcodia's first product, the ROCA® Test is a screening test that that indicates a woman's likelihood of having ovarian cancer. The ROCA Test is intended for postmenopausal women aged between 50 and 85, or for certain women between 35 and 85 years of age who are considered to have a higher risk due to family history of ovarian or breast cancer or genetic mutations in, for example, the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. The ROCA test has been evaluated in several prospective clinical trials in both the U.K. and U.S. involving more than 215,000 women over the past 15 years. The results of those studies show that the ROCA Test, when used with appropriate clinical follow up, has high accuracy, better than other methods that have been evaluated prospectively in healthy women and detects the majority of ovarian cancer cases before the first signs or symptoms surface. The ROCA Test is CE marked and is currently available in the private healthcare market in the U.K. and will be available in select U.S. markets in the coming year. For more information, visit http://www.therocatest.co.uk or http://www.rocatest.com
US MEDIA CONTACT:
Danielle Lewis
Lazar Partners Ltd.
T: +1(212)843-0211
dlewis@lazarpartners.com
UK MEDIA CONTACT:
Rozi Morris/Gemma Howe
Instinctif Partners
T: +44(0)20-7457-2020
abcodia@instinctif.com
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