BG Medicine Inc. (NSDQ:BGMD) signed yet another deal involving its galectin-3 heart failure test, this time with Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX)
The Natick, Mass.-based cardiac device giant is studying whether Waltham, Mass.-based BG’s diagnostic can identify patients in need of cardiac-resynchronization therapy using patient data from its Madit-CRT clinical trial.
That trial examined 1,820 patients with ischemic or non-ischemic cardiomyopathy over four-and-one-half years to compare implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy alone with CRT defibrillator treatment.
The galectin-3 test screens for the presence of a protein that is both a predictor and the cause of a certain type of heart failure. CEO Pieter Muntendam told MassDevice that the test can help identify patients whose heart muscles are gradually stiffening by tagging people with high levels of galectin-3. The stiffening that occurs during heart failure can cause the heart’s ventricles to beat out of sync, a condition treatable with CRT.
The BGMD/BSX deal also involves BG’s biomarker discovery tools for identifying other biomarkers that might correlate to patients’ response to CRT treatment, according to BG.
It’s the latest instance of what Muntendam calls an innovative business model for developing and commercializing diagnostics. BG brought its test through clinical trials and the regulatory process (the test won 510(k) clearance from the FDA in November 2010 and landed CE Mark approval in the European Union earlier this year) and onto the market in a simple, “manual” form. Then it negotiated a series of deals with big-name diagnostics firms — including Abbott (NYSE:ABT), Siemens (NYSE:SI), Alere (NYSE:ALR) and BioMérieux (EPA:BIM) — to develop versions for those companies’ high-throughput automated machines.
Here’s a roundup of companies announcing new distribution deals, licensing agreements and other joint ventures.
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