CLEVELAND, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- PrognostiX, a start-up company established by the Cleveland Clinic, has named Mark R. Willig as its new CEO.
Mr. Willig assumes his post July 18. He joins PrognostiX a month after the company received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin selling a diagnostic test capable of identifying patients in imminent danger of heart attack or death. PrognostiX specializes in the development of technologies used in the diagnosis of inflammatory diseases.
“With the recent FDA approval of the company’s diagnostic test for cardiovascular disease (called CardioMPO), the company is poised to take off,” said Paul DiCorleto, Ph.D., Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. “The Board of Directors believes that Mark Willig is exactly the right person to lead and accelerate this process. We were very fortunate to have been able to recruit him to Cleveland.”
Mr. Willig most recently was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Specialty Labs Inc., a leading clinical reference laboratory that performs advanced clinically useful testing services for hospitals, laboratories and physician-specialist communities nationwide. The company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, is based in Valencia, Calif., and reported net revenues of $134.8 million for the year ending Dec. 31, 2004.
“I am pleased to join PrognostiX at a time when the company has exciting new products in the development pipeline,” Mr. Willig said. “CardioMPO provides physicians with information to treat their patients proactively, providing better patient care. I am confident that other tests in our pipeline will be equally as beneficial to physicians and their patients.”
CardioMPO, the first product launched by PrognostiX, measures the level of myeloperoxidase (MPO), a disease-fighting enzyme, in the bloodstream. Researchers at The Cleveland Clinic have found that among patients complaining of chest pain or discomfort, an elevated MPO level can signal a near-term risk for having a heart attack, needing bypass surgery or angioplasty, and even being at risk for cardiac death, within months.
The CardioMPO blood test is based on research studies performed by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., Section Head of Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation at The Cleveland Clinic, in collaboration with Marc Penn, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the Coronary Intensive Care Unit at The Cleveland Clinic, and Marie-Luise Brennan, Ph.D.
“We are thrilled to have Mark join the Cleveland Clinic community,” said Chris Coburn, Executive Director of CCF Innovations, the Clinic’s technology transfer and commercialization arm. “He is a proven leader with a record of successes launching, marketing and selling diagnostic products.”
PrognostiX is housed within the Clinic’s innovation center located at 10265 Carnegie Ave. A Technology Action Fund grant made to The Cleveland Clinic by the State of Ohio helped to support the Clinic’s innovation center, which played a key role in developing PrognostiX as a Cleveland Clinic-owned spin-off company. ExOxEmis, of Little Rock, Ark., is a principal investor in PrognostiX. The Clinic is a shareholder in PrognostiX and members of its staff also have a financial interest in the company.
In addition to CardioMPO, PrognostiX is working to develop several additional technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular and other inflammatory diseases, including asthma. For more information about PrognostiX, go to http://www.Prognostix.com or call Gary Smith, Vice President of Business Development for PrognostiX, at 216/445-3485.
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a not-for- profit multi-specialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. The Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. U.S. News & World Report consistently names The Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. Approximately 1,500 full-time salaried physicians at The Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Florida represent more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties. In 2004, patients came for treatment from every state and 100 countries. The Cleveland Clinic website address is http://www.clevelandclinic.org.
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CONTACT: Raquel Santiago of the Cleveland Clinic, +1-216-444-4235