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US-based Dr John Chiplin joins HealthLinx board as non-exec director
1 December 2010
HealthLinx Limited (ASX:HTX) has appointed John Chiplin PhD as a non-executive director. Dr Chiplin is highly respected in the Australian biotechnology sector with over 20 years’ experience in life science and technology industries in the US, UK and Australia.
As HealthLinx expands the distribution of OvPlex™ internationally it became apparent that the board required additional skills and expertise to help drive the business strategy and sought an additional member with strong life sciences operations and financial market experience.
“Dr Chiplin has a track record in advancing companies both in Australia and the United States. He is skilled in operations and financial markets and the board welcomes Dr Chiplin to HealthLinx,” said HealthLinx managing director Nick Gatsios. “As we progress with securing more jurisdictions for the distribution of OvPlex™, we believe that John’s knowledge and experience will be of great value.”
Dr Chiplin was most recently the CEO of Arana Therapeutics (ASX:AAH), one of the largest publicly quoted biotechnology companies in Australia. In his role at Arana, Dr Chiplin successfully guided its lead drug candidate (a ‘domain’ antibody) through Phase I into Phase II clinical trials and IND FDA filing. Dr Chiplin ultimately led the corporate re-engineering of Arana Therapeutics, a world leading antibody developer, which resulted in the acquisition of the company by Cephalon Inc for a significant premium to market in July 2009. Immediately prior to running Arana, Dr Chiplin was head of the US$300M ITI Life Sciences investment fund in the UK.
Dr Chiplin's own investment vehicle, Newstar Ventures Ltd, has funded more than a dozen early stage companies in the past ten years. Dr Chiplin's pharmacy and doctoral degrees are from the University of Nottingham, UK and he currently serves on the boards of or acts as an advisor to a number of international public/private companies and venture capital funds.
About HealthLinx Limited (ASX:HTX)
HealthLinx uses biomarkers to develop best practice diagnostics that detect and monitor diseases. First commercial targets are for diseases with high fatality:
• Ovarian cancer diagnostic (OvPlex) targeting US$270m pa market
• Prostate cancer targeting US$350m pa market
A biomarker is a specific biochemical in the body that measures disease or the effects of treatment.
HealthLinx has also commenced the second larger study for OvPlexTM aiming to prove a diagnostic accuracy of over 97 per cent for early stage ovarian cancer. This larger study is based on 1150 new samples using existing OvPlex™ biomarkers and including two novel biomarkers AGR2 and HTX010. The study will be a robust comparison of sensitivity and specificity especially for early stage diagnosis in symptomatic women. The objective is to cement the position of OvPlex™ as the world’s most accurate and efficient ovarian cancer diagnostic.
