Finally, some news! This should help stop the slide in the stock.
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Matritech Introduces Colon Cancer Test for Evaluation at Leading Cancer Centers
Foreign Sales of Second NMP-Based Cancer Test Begin
NEWTON, Mass., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Matritech, Inc., (Nasdaq: NMPS; BSE: MPS) announced today that it has completed its performance
qualifications for the first production lots of its blood-based colon cancer detection assay to be supplied to 13 cancer sites for use in demonstrating its clinical performance. The purpose of the evaluations by the leading cancer centers, located throughout the world, is to independently confirm the clinical utility of the new test and to submit their findings to medical and oncology journals for publication. These studies are in addition to the ongoing trials to provide the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with data needed to approve the product for sale in the United States.
The company also reported that it has shipped the colon cancer test kit to accounts outside the United States to fill initial sales orders. Matritech's colon cancer product is the company's second cancer detection product and, like the recently approved NMP22(R) Test Kit for use in the management of bladder cancer patients, is based on the company's proprietary nuclear matrix protein technology.
"This Matritech milestone is further validation of Nuclear Matrix Protein- based cancer diagnostic testing," said David L. Corbet, Matritech's president. "We have a technology platform which we feel is applicable to most, if not all forms of cancer," he added. The NMP22 Test Kit for bladder cancer was approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 1996.
Colorectal cancers are the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States killing more than 55,000 people each year. The company estimates that the prevalence of colon cancer outside the United States exceeds 1.5 million people.
Both the colorectal cancer test and the NMP22 Test Kit are based on a fundamental breakthrough in cell biology discovered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where researchers found that NMPs in cancer cells differ from those in normal cells. MIT obtained patents covering the use of NMPs to detect cancer and licensed their discovery worldwide, exclusively to Matritech.
Data from a preclinical study performed using a prototype of the colorectal cancer assay, presented by Matritech scientists at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) last April, showed that Matritech's diagnostic assay for colorectal cancer was more than twice as sensitive as the only FDA-approved, blood-based colon cancer clinical assay, carcinoembryonic antigen assay (CEA) in identifying early-stage colorectal cancer (Dukes A, B1, B2). The study demonstrated CEA to be only 33 percent sensitive (8/24) in identifying patients with early-stage colorectal cancer. The Matritech test was 71 percent sensitive (17/24) in identifying early-stage colorectal cancer.
In addition to the bladder and colorectal cancer products now on the market, Matritech's pipeline also includes products for detecting lung, prostate, cervical, and breast cancers -- all of which are based on discoveries that the protein composition of the Nuclear Matrix differs between cancer cells and normal cells. The medical market for those assays is estimated to be more than $1 billion annually. Annual worldwide sales of CEA are estimated by Matritech to exceed $100 million in sales.
SOURCE Matritech, Inc. |
