NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – BG Medicine today announced a deal with Kindstar Diagnostics to offer galectin-3 testing services in China.
Kindstar, based in Wuhan, China, is the largest esoteric diagnostic testing business in the country, BGM said, and offers laboratory testing services to more than 2,000 hospitals there. BGM noted that much of China's population pays out of pocket for essential medical services, providing "a ready market for diagnostic testing services like galectin-3 testing," by allowing BGM to bypass reimbursement issues.
In the US, BGM's Galectin-3 test is cleared by the Food and Drug Administration to help in assessing the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure.
In a statement, BGM President and CEO Eric Bouvier said that heart disease affects more than 230 million people in China. "[W]e believe that Kindstar's galectin-3 testing services will help to provide medical professionals with clinical information on fibrosis formation and cardiac remodeling, which are important biological processes in the development and progression of heart failure, while also helping to manage the costs of expanding healthcare coverage to more of China's citizens."
Shiang Huang, CEO of Kindstar, added that six people in China die from cardiovascular disease each minute.
"We believe that clinically relevant and novel markers like galectin-3 will help medical professionals in China identify patients who are at greatest risk for developing heart failure, which assists us to focus the most attention on those who need it," Huang said.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.