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May 31, 2008
Yonkers company taking prostate cancer
analysis tool to market
Jerry Gleeson
The Journal News
Private investors have staked $50 million on the future of Aureon
Laboratories Inc., a Yonkers biotech company. They'll soon know if it
was worth it as Aureon prepares to take its first major service to
market.
Prostate Px+ is a diagnostic tool that uses sophisticated technology and
advanced mathematics to analyze tissue samples from men with prostate
cancer following their diagnosis.
Aureon says its techniques can predict how serious the cancer will
become, allowing doctors and patients to make more informed decisions on
how aggressively to treat the disease.
The company was founded by three molecular pathologists in 2001. It has
research collaborations with pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer and
Astra Zeneca.
"It's been a long seven years getting to this point," said Vijay
Aggarwal, Aureon's president and chief executive. "We've spent a lot of
money. We believe we've spent it wisely. We think the market demands and
deserves rigorous clinical development and validation, which is
expensive."
The company employs about two dozen people at its offices at the former
Otis Elevator building near Getty Square. By year's end, the staff will
double as the company adds a sales force to market Prostate Px+ across
the nation.
Aggarwal said Aureon is seeking another $35 million for the expansion
and more research into other applications for its patented technology.
Aureon introduced its centerpiece this month at the annual meeting of
the American Urological Association in Orlando, Fla.
Jason Alter, the company's marketing director, said interest at the
convention was high.
"It's been accepted for a long time that there's a tremendous need for
what this test does," he said. "When you read the literature and go to
the meetings, this is what everybody talks about."
About 220,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, and
30,000 men die from it annually. After lung cancer, it's the second
leading cause of cancer death among men.
About 85 percent of men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer are
classified as facing low or intermediate risk of death, yet many who
subsequently die from the condition fall within these classifications.
Others may opt for aggressive treatment, such as radiation therapy or
removal of the organ, and subsequently suffer burdensome side effects
such as incontinence or impotence.
The demand for knowing how bad such cancer can become is keen. Aggarwal,
the former executive vice president of laboratories for SmithKline
Beecham Clinical Laboratories, estimates the market for such prognostic
tests as Aureon's at $500 million.
Using high-resolution digital images, Aureon studies the molecular
circuitry of a patient's cancer tissue on a pixel-by-pixel basis.
Computers sort through thousands of bits of data that are gleaned from
the samples to chose specific data that can offer meaningful sense of
how the cancer will progress.
Statistical models help place a patient on a scale of 1 to 100, with low
numbers representing the least risk from the disease. Alter said the
list price for the test is $3,000. Such tests do not require approval
from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, although the FDA is
evaluating whether that's necessary, he said.
Dr. Howard Soule, executive vice president of the Prostate Cancer
Foundation, said Aureon is one of several researchers that are trying to
develop better diagnostic tests in the field. He declined to comment on
the efficacy of tests.
"I would say that's a very large market and a very important thing to
do," he said. "Most of them (men with prostate cancer diagnosis) are
treated aggressively because the physician can't tell the difference
between one (tumor) that's unimportant and one that's going to be
lethal."
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