SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 1, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crescendo Bioscience, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq:MYGN), announced that Elena Hitraya M.D., Ph.D., has joined the Company as the chief medical officer of Crescendo Bioscience, effective October 1, 2015. She will report to Bernie Tobin, president of Crescendo Bioscience.
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“We are excited to welcome Dr. Hitraya to the Crescendo team. Her experience, leadership and exceptional track record in both rheumatology and immunology make her ideally suited to lead the medical affairs functions at Crescendo,” said Mr. Tobin. “The addition of Dr. Hitraya underscores our commitment to recruit world-class talent and build a leadership team that is focused on improving patient care. She is joining us at a pivotal time as the use of our lead product, Vectra® DA, is growing, and we’re expanding the state-of-the-art in our scientific understanding of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other immune-mediated conditions.”
In her new role, Dr. Hitraya will lead efforts to provide professional education initiatives and to expand market access for Vectra DA and the Company’s pipeline of autoimmune products. She will also be instrumental in efforts to develop other autoimmune products beyond rheumatoid arthritis.
“This is a wonderful time to join Crescendo, with its commitment to developing and commercializing innovative molecular tests that are opening the doors to personalized medicine for patients with RA and other autoimmune diseases,” said Dr. Hitraya. “I welcome this opportunity to lead the talented teams of medical and scientific experts at Crescendo who will help us improve the lives of patients.”
Dr. Hitraya comes to Crescendo with more than 25 years of experience in rheumatology and immunology, and she has published extensively. Over the past 11 years, she has held several leadership positions at Genentech, including most recently as group medical director of rheumatology/immunology for the Genentech/Roche group. Prior to Genentech, Dr. Hitraya was regional director of medical affairs for immunology at Centocor, a division of Johnson & Johnson. She received her medical degree from Semmelweis Medical University, Budapest, Hungary and her doctoral degree in clinical rheumatology from the Institute of Rheumatology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Dr. Hitraya completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology at the Division of Rheumatology at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pa.
About Crescendo Bioscience
Crescendo Bioscience, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc., is a molecular diagnostics company dedicated to developing and commercializing quantitative blood tests for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other autoimmune diseases, located in South San Francisco, California. Crescendo Bioscience develops quantitative, objective, blood tests to provide rheumatologists with deeper clinical insight to help enable more effective management of patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. For more information, please visit the company’s website at: www.CrescendoBio.com.
About Myriad Genetics
Myriad Genetics is a leading molecular diagnostic company dedicated to making a difference in patients’ lives through the discovery and commercialization of transformative tests to assess a person’s risk of developing disease, guide treatment decisions and assess risk of disease progression and recurrence. Myriad is focused on strategic directives to grow existing markets, diversify through the introduction of new products, including companion diagnostics, as well as to expand internationally. For more information on how Myriad is making a difference, please visit the Company’s website: www.myriad.com.
Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, myPath, myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan Lung Cancer, BRACAnalysis CDx, HRD, Vectra and Prolaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to the hiring of Dr. Elena Hitraya and the scope of her employment responsibilities; and the Company’s strategic directives under the caption “About Myriad Genetics.” These “forward-looking statements” are based on management’s current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the risk that sales and profit margins of our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services may decline; risks related to our ability to transition from our existing product portfolio to our new tests, including unexpected costs and delays; risks related to decisions or changes in governmental or private insurers’ reimbursement levels for our tests or our ability to obtain reimbursement for our new tests at comparable levels to our existing tests; risks related to increased competition and the development of new competing tests and services; the risk that we may be unable to develop or achieve commercial success for additional molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services in a timely manner, or at all; the risk that we may not successfully develop new markets for our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services, including our ability to successfully generate revenue outside the United States; the risk that licenses to the technology underlying our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and any future tests and services are terminated or cannot be maintained on satisfactory terms; risks related to delays or other problems with operating our laboratory testing facilities and our healthcare clinic; risks related to public concern over genetic testing in general or our tests in particular; risks related to regulatory requirements or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries and changes in the structure of the healthcare system or healthcare payment systems; risks related to our ability to obtain new corporate collaborations or licenses and acquire new technologies or businesses on satisfactory terms, if at all; risks related to our ability to successfully integrate and derive benefits from any technologies or businesses that we license or acquire; risks related to our projections about our business, results of operations and financial condition; risks related to the potential market opportunity for our products and services; the risk that we or our licensors may be unable to protect or that third parties will infringe the proprietary technologies underlying our tests; the risk of patent-infringement claims or challenges to the validity of our patents or other intellectual property; risks related to changes in intellectual property laws covering our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and patents or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries, such as the Supreme Court decision in the lawsuit brought against us by the Association for Molecular Pathology et al; risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the United States and internationally; and other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” contained in Item 1A of in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as any updates to those risk factors filed from time to time in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or Current Reports on Form 8-K. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Myriad undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.
CONTACT: Media Contact: Ron Rogers (801) 584-3065 rrogers@myriad.com Investor Contact: Scott Gleason (801) 584-1143 sgleason@myriad.com
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