Global Hospital & Healthcare Management

Health Discovery Corporation (HDC) entered into a partnership with the Pancreas, Biliary and Liver Surgery Center of New York at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers in New York City to develop new molecular diagnostic tests for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. The Pancreas, Biliary and Liver Surgery Center is under the leadership of Drs. Michael Wayne, Franklin Kassim and Avram Cooperman.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Pancreas, Biliary and Liver Surgery Center will provide all specimens from their collected specimen banks, specimens on all new patients and all associated clinical and outcomes data. The specimens will include tissue, blood and urine. Health Discovery Corporation (HDC) will use it's patent protected SVM-based discovery technology and expert science team to develop these new molecular diagnostic tests for pancreatic cancer in a similar fashion to the urine-based prostate cancer test developed by HDC and licensed for development and commercialization to Quest Diagnostics and Abbott  on a royalty-based, world-wide co-exclusive basis.

Health Discovery Corporation will own all of the intellectual property and commercialization rights to these newly discovered molecular diagnostic tests for pancreatic cancer and HDC intends to immediately partner with a large clinical laboratory for development, marketing and commercialization of these tests.

“We are very excited to partner with Drs. Wayne, Kassim and Cooperman and their colleagues, all experts in pancreatic cancer, to work together in the development of new molecular diagnostic tests for the early detection of pancreatic cancer,” said Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D., Chairman and CEO of Health Discovery Corporation. "The specimen bank established by these doctors provides a rare opportunity to accomplish this vital goal.”

“A century of treating pancreatic cancer leaves much to be humble about. I believe that working with Dr. Barnhill, his expert scientific team and the proven SVM technology at Health Discovery Corporation, we have a unique opportunity to develop a new molecular diagnostic test to identify pancreatic cancer at a pre-clinical stage early enough to be treated more effectively than is current practice on today’s patients," said Dr. Cooperman, Surgical Director at the Pancreas, Biliary and Liver Surgery Center.

“With 1 in 72 men and women diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas during their lifetime and an overall 5-year survival rate of only 5.5%, there is a great need for a new molecular diagnostic screening test for early detection of this devastating disease.” said Dr. Cooperman.

About Health Discovery Corporation

Health Discovery Corporation is a molecular diagnostics company that uses advanced mathematical techniques to analyze large amounts of data to uncover patterns that might otherwise be undetectable.  It operates primarily in the emerging field of personalized medicine where such tools are critical to scientific discovery.  Its primary business consists of licensing its intellectual property and developing its own product line of biomarker-based diagnostic tests that include human genes and genetic variations, as well as gene, protein, and metabolic expression differences and image analysis in digital pathology and radiology. For more information, http://www.healthdiscoverycorp.com/

About The Pancreas, Biliary and Livery Surgery Center at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, New York City

This highly-successful, specialized medical and surgical practice is a leader in the New York City metropolitan area and is associated with a major hospital center. In 2009, the Pancreas, Biliary and Liver Surgery Center of New York at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers consulted on over 1,000 patients, performed 1,500 endoscopic procedures and 150 complex biliary pancreatic operations. The seven doctors benefit from a research laboratory within the center headed by Robert Ollar, Ph.D., an internationally renown microbiologist, who will assist in the research. For more information, http://www.pblsurgeryny.com/

About Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, New York City

Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers serves as a major healthcare resource for the greater New York metropolitan area. The system is anchored by St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan in historic Greenwich Village, Manhattan, which serves as the academic medical center for New York Medical College in New York City and offers residency and fellowship programs in a variety of specialties and sub-specialties.

The system also includes St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester, a behavioral health facility; continuing care services that include Bishop Mugavero Center for Geriatric Care and Holy Family Home in Brooklyn, St. Elizabeth Ann's Health Care & Rehabilitation Center and Pax Christi Hospice on Staten Island, and Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers Home Health Agency, which delivers comprehensive home care services throughout the five boroughs of New York City as well as in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.  In addition, St. Vincent’s is the designated provider for the New York and New Jersey region of the US Family Health Plan, sponsored by the US Department of Defense. For more information, http://www.svcmc.org/

Contact:

Health Discovery Corporation
Scott Tobin, (912) 443-1987
Tom Gallagher, (203) 918-3115
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