HAIFA, Israel, March 27 /PRNewswire/ -- HaptoGuard Ltd., a drug discovery and development company with a particular interest in diabetic vascular disease announced an agreement with ARUP Laboratories, a leading full-service clinical reference laboratory. Under the terms of the agreement, HaptoGuard has granted ARUP, non-exclusive rights to discriminate risk of cardiovascular disease among diabetics by using a laboratory-developed, PCR-based test for haptoglobin polymorphisms. ARUP agreed to provide up front fees, milestone payments and royalties on future testing.
"Haptoglobin polymorphism testing will guide diabetes management and serve as a critical determinant of healthcare resource utilization," said Noah C. Berkowitz, MD-PhD, CEO of HaptoGuard Ltd. "ARUP's decision to educate the medical community and provide it with tools to discriminate vascular risk creates demand for our therapeutics, and represents commercial validation of our drug discovery and development strategy."
"Haptoglobin polymorphism testing represents the opportunity to promote cardiovascular risk assessment services to our clients and their patients in the hospital and independent laboratory communities," said Ronald L. Weiss, M.D., Senior Vice President, ARUP "We anticipate a highly productive relationship with HaptoGuard that may spawn additional technologies and improvements in our ability to risk-assess patients with diabetes.
The haptoglobin polymorphism testing patents have been assigned to HaptoGuard Ltd by Dr. Andrew Levy and the Rappaport Institute of Haifa, Israel. Dr. Andrew Levy, the company founder and Associate Professor at the Technion and Member of the Rapport Institute has demonstrated that the test represents the single most important predictor of risk for vascular disease among diabetics. Diabetic patients with the "favorable" haptoglobin polymorphism are far less likely to develop vascular disease, to die within 30 days of experiencing a myocardial infarction, or to manifest restenosis after angioplasty, compared to their peers with "unfavorable" genotypes.
About ARUP Laboratories
ARUP Laboratories is a national full-service reference laboratory owned
by the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah Health Sciences
Center. ARUP is a worldwide leader in innovative laboratory research and
development, led by the efforts of the ARUP Institute for Clinical and
Experimental Pathology, LLC. With revenue of greater than $150 million
and more than 1,300 employees, ARUP offers over 2,000 tests and test combinations,
ranging from routine cytology screens to highly esoteric molecular and
genetic assays. ARUP's clients include university teaching hospitals,
multi-hospital groups, major commercial laboratories, group purchasing
organizations, military and government facilities, major clinics, and
major pharmaceutical firms. Additional information is available on ARUP's
Web site at www.aruplab.com
Contact Information:
Noah Berkowitz
Tel - +972 (9) 745-5670
noah.berkowitz@haptoguard.com