AHA’s first “accelerated” project headed for development

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DALLAS, April 25, 2013 — The first project to receive an investment from the American Heart Association’s Science & Technology Accelerator Program will be jointly developed by CytoVas, LLC and BD Biosciences, the firms announced.

The Vascular Health Profile (VHP) test is a blood-based diagnostic test that predicts a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke. The Accelerator program speeds the investigation and development of products that can help people with cardiovascular diseases.

CytoVas is a biomarker discovery and development company based in Philadelphia.  Their technology was developed by a team of University of Pennsylvania scientists and physicians and spun out of the UPStart Program at the University’s Center for Technology Transfer in 2011.  Cardiovascular health is the company’s first area of focus for research. BD, a division of Becton Dickinson in Franklin Lakes, NJ, develops, manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagents.

The phase of the VHP development funded by the Accelerator program is a trial to determine whether it could also assess how effective preventive treatments are in people at high risk for a cardiovascular event.

Today, physicians can only determine whether a treatment failed if it doesn’t prevent heart attack or stroke.

“The Vascular Health Profile is a potential game-changer,” said Ross Tonkens, a cardiologist and head of the American Heart Association’s Science & Technology Accelerator Fund. “It’s exactly the kind of technology the AHA’s accelerator program wants to help push to market, and get into the hands of doctors and patients where it can impact outcomes.”

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The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical and device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing any science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at www.heart.org/corporatefunding

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