Padma Sundar Appointed Senior Vice President, Marketing and Market Access
Dr. Kim Dickinson Appointed Vice President, Clinical Operations
ALAMEDA, Calif., May 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OncoCyte Corporation (NYSE American: OCX), a developer of novel, non-invasive tests for the early detection of lung cancer, today announced the appointment of Padma Sundar, an industry leader in oncology diagnostics strategy and marketing, as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Market Access, effective May 22, 2019. The Company also announced the appointment of Dr. Kim Dickinson, a recognized leader in clinical operations and pathology, as Vice President of Clinical Operations, effective May 28, 2019.
“These two executives have the experience to lead OncoCyte into the commercial phase of its operations, and we welcome Padma and Kim to the team,” said William Annett, President and Chief Executive Officer of OncoCyte. “Padma is a skilled and experienced professional with an impressive background commercializing diagnostic tests, including an emphasis on liquid biopsy tests, and we look forward to her valuable contributions as we build a world-class marketing organization and advance our reimbursement initiatives and payer relations.”
Mr. Annett continued, “Kim’s proven record of overseeing all stages of digital pathology, leading clinical trials, and standardizing and improving operations across labs globally, will be a tremendous asset to our team. We believe Kim’s clinical experience will be invaluable to the advancement of our R&D program as we explore the potential utility of our proprietary Immune System Interrogation approach beyond our work in lung cancer.”
“I am honored to lead OncoCyte’s marketing team as the Company prepares to transition to a commercial-stage organization,” said Ms. Sundar. “Having worked in the diagnostics industry for many years, I am well aware of the inadequacies surrounding the reliance on lung biopsies as the current standard of care for the diagnosis of lung cancer. OncoCyte’s confirmatory lung cancer test, DetermaVu™, has the potential to greatly reduce unnecessary biopsies, and in turn may lower costs and decrease the rate of patient complications. I look forward to working with the team as we seek to make this ground-breaking technology available to the broadest appropriate patient population.”
“I believe DetermaVu™ has the potential to change the paradigm in the early detection of lung cancer, and I look forward to expanding the Company’s pipeline to other high-value indications,” said Dr. Dickinson. “This is an exciting time to join OncoCyte as it seeks to leverage its proprietary Immune System Interrogation technology to develop tests for other solid tumor cancer types in need of improved diagnostic options.”
Ms. Sundar brings to OncoCyte an extensive portfolio of experience, having launched several oncology tests for global diagnostics companies, helping them achieve market leadership positions. Before joining OncoCyte, Ms. Sundar served as Vice President of Strategy and Market Access at CellMax Life, a liquid biopsy company, where she launched the first blood test for preventative colon cancer screening. Prior to CellMax, she served as Director of Marketing at Guardant Health where she drove a 75% increase in test volume and a significant increase in adoption by U.S. oncologists. Previously, Ms. Sundar was Senior Director at Roche Sequencing where she launched the first next-generation sequencing (NGS) liquid biopsy kit for cancer recurrence monitoring. She was also Senior Director for the oncology portfolio at Affymetrix where she brought the first whole genome microarray kits “OncoScan” and “CytoScan” for solid and liquid tumor profiling to 50 leading academic and reference labs worldwide. Ms. Sundar began her career at McKinsey and Company, and received her M.B.A. and M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Delhi.
Dr. Dickinson brings to OncoCyte over two decades of industry experience and expertise in overseeing global clinical trials and diagnostic testing, with an emphasis on anatomic, clinical, and digital pathology. Before joining OncoCyte, Dr. Dickinson served as Vice President of R&D and Chief Pathologist at BioCare Medical where she led a large team responsible for the R&D and testing of antibody optimizations to support the launch and release of a new immunohistochemistry instrument. Prior to BioCare, she served as Vice President of Clinical Operations at Roche Tissue Diagnostics where she provided strategic operational leadership of operations within a clinical trial testing lab, supporting the coordination and execution of more than 100 companion diagnostic, in vitro diagnostic clinical trials. Previously, at Laboratory Corporation of America, she was Medical Director for the Clinical Trials Division where she directed daily operations across five global anatomic pathology lab testing sites. Previously she served as Medical Director for Esoteric Testing where she led a team of pathologists and operations staff. Earlier in her career, Dr. Dickinson worked at Quest Diagnostics, Citrus Valley Medical Center and Pioneer Hospital. She received her M.D. from Hahnehmann University, her M.B.A. and M.P.H. from the University of California, Irvine, and her B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh.
About DetermaVu™
DetermaVu™ is being developed as an intermediate step to confirm the absence of cancer between imaging modalities (LDCTs) detecting suspicious lung nodules and downstream invasive procedures that determine if the nodules are malignant. OncoCyte estimates that a $2 billion to $4.7 billion annual market could develop in the U.S. for its confirmatory lung cancer liquid biopsy test, depending on the scope of physician utilization, market penetration and reimbursable pricing.
DetermaVu™ has the potential to dramatically reduce U.S. healthcare costs by billions of dollars each year by eliminating unnecessary biopsies, which, according to a study of Medicare data by an independent health economics firm, cost on average $14,634 each. In addition, DetermaVu™ has the potential to provide great benefit to patients by avoiding invasive tissue biopsies and the complications that arise in up to 24% of those procedures, and deaths that occur in up to 1% of cases.
DetermaVu™ is a trademark of OncoCyte Corporation
About OncoCyte Corporation
OncoCyte is focused on the development and commercialization of novel, non-invasive blood (“liquid biopsy”) diagnostic tests for the early detection of cancer. Early detection of cancer can improve health outcomes, reduce the cost of care, and improve patients’ quality of life. Liquid biopsy diagnostic tests like those OncoCyte is developing may reduce the need for costlier and riskier diagnostic procedures such as invasive biopsy procedures. OncoCyte is focusing its efforts on developing DetermaVu™ as a non-invasive confirmatory diagnostic test for lung cancer. DetermaVu™ is being developed using proprietary sets of genetic and protein molecular markers to detect the presence of lung cancer. OncoCyte also plans to conduct research to identify additional molecular markers, acquire or license markers and related technology, and develop cancer tests based on those markers.
OncoCyte Forward Looking Statements
Any statements that are not historical fact (including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as “will,” “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates” and similar expressions) are forward-looking statements. These statements include those pertaining to the implementation and results of research, development, clinical trials and studies, commercialization plans, future financial and/or operating results, and future opportunities for OncoCyte, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans, or prospects expressed by management. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the development and/or commercialization of potential diagnostic tests or products, uncertainty in the results of clinical trials or regulatory approvals, the capacity of our third-party supplied blood sample analytic system to provide consistent and precise analytic results on a commercial scale, the need and ability to obtain future capital, maintenance of intellectual property rights, and the need to obtain third party reimbursement for patients’ use of any diagnostic tests we commercialize. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and accordingly such statements should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the business of OncoCyte, particularly those mentioned in the “Risk Factors” and other cautionary statements found in OncoCyte’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings. OncoCyte disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
Investor Contacts
Bob Yedid
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
646-597-6989
bob@lifesciadvisors.com
OncoCyte Corporation
