Precision Therapeutics

Contact: Pam Ranallo, +1 412.432.1502, pranallo@ptilabs.com

Personalizing Cancer Care Improves Outcomes and Saves Costs

Precision Therapeutics is a Pittsburgh based company which has not only survived economic adversity, but has excelled and flourished due to foresight and investment into the healthcare industry. In less than two years, Precision has increased its number of employees from 24 to 240. Understanding that only 1 in 4 cancer patients actually respond to chemotherapy, Precision Therapeutics developed a drug response marker with the sole aim of developing and delivering technology that can support the physician's decision in selecting the appropriate chemotherapy for an individual patient by using the patient's live tumor. The results of this marker, when integrated with clinical judgment, act as a guidance or additional tool in the physician's bag to tailor cancer therapies on an individualized basis. It has been proven to increase the patient's chance of response, extending progression free intervals of disease and improving quality of life and overall survival significantly. According to a recent study by Duke University, not all of the benefit of the test goes to the patient...it also saves the health care system the substantial costs of unnecessary and ineffective therapy.

To date, a total of 16,500 patients have received this drug response marker.  Approximately 60% of the members of Society of Gynecologic Oncologists have ordered it for their cancer patients and 17 NCCN Member institutions have used it in clinical practice.  Over 35 studies supporting this drug response marker involving approximately 2,400 cancer patients have been conducted with live tissue access from over 30 different tumor types. The use of a high throughput, fully automated robotic system allows for robust test results that have proven feasibility, reproducibility and are quality controlled.

Precision, like Pittsburgh, has transformed itself in times of economic adversity and has not only flourished, but continues to thrive and grow despite the floundering economy. CEO Sean McDonald showed his unswerving commitment to the company by securing $43 million: Precision's largest-ever round of capital and also more than the $41.36 million that seven other Pittsburgh companies raised, combined, during the third quarter of 2008. This new round of funding has brought the company's total venture capital take past the $100 million mark. The funding will enable Precision Therapeutics to not only broaden its educational efforts to physicians who can utilize this tool to tailor treatment decisions but also fund their future in genomic research.

Quality of life, economic transformation, improved healthcare and innovative robotic technology are all qualities that targeted Pittsburgh as the source of the G20 summit, but they are also the very qualities of this up-and-coming start-up Pittsburgh company which is made up of highly knowledgeable scientists, engineers, physicians, quality assurance specialists, research and development experts, and top executives all genuinely concerned with and involved in the fight against cancer and improvement in healthcare and quality and extension of life.