NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Helomics said today that it has completed the final phase of a restructuring process designed to establish the company as a clinical contract research and clinical products organization.
The Pittsburgh-based company will now provide product enhancement and clinical laboratory services — including comprehensive tumor profiling using proprietary cell-based products and services — to customers in the healthcare industries. Patients who consent to undergo sample testing at Helomics have the opportunity to further cancer research and the development of new therapies and diagnostics through Helomics' technology development and industry partnerships, the firm added.
Gerald Vardzel, Jr. will serve as president and CEO of the company, replacing Neil Campbell, who is no longer with the firm. Campbell had joined the firm in late 2014, around the time the company changed its name to Helomics from Precision Therapeutics.
Helomics made the announcement a week after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that a group of investors, including Vardzel, had acquired the firm from Stamford, Connecticut-based healthcare investment firm HealthCare Royalty Partners. The company did not disclose financial details of the acquisition.
In February, Helomics launched two new services, an expansion of its live-cell analysis platform called CellFx, and a tumor shedding analysis called Defender that is intended to serve as a virtual parallel to liquid biopsies.
These services are part of the company's comprehensive tumor profiling offering. Helomics also offers two genetic tests for disease recurrence: GeneFx Colon, a microarray-based test for stage II colon cancer patients; and GeneFx Lung, an array-based 15-gene assay, licensed from Almac Diagnostics and Med BioGene, respectively.