Biomoda Commends N.M. Governor Bill Richardson for Proclaiming National Lung Cancer Awareness Month

“It’s particularly appropriate to acknowledge Gov. Richardson on Veterans Day because his administration and the New Mexico Legislature have been proactive and forward-thinking in their support for our landmark screening program to detect early-stage lung cancer in New Mexico veterans,” Biomoda President John Cousins said today. “We know that veterans have a 25 percent higher risk of lung cancer than the general population due to greater exposure to known carcinogens, such as Agent Orange and asbestos, and higher smoking rates.”

Funded by the Legislature from the state’s tobacco settlement funds and administered by the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, the veterans screening program is the first large-scale study of Biomoda’s CyPath® investigational use (not yet FDA-approved) diagnostic, which is based on a patented molecular marker that binds to cancer cells and fluoresces red under ultraviolet light. Biomoda recruited approximately 500 at-risk veterans for the clinical trial, and results are expected by the end of January 2010.

Study volunteers provide deep-lung sputum samples to be screened for cancer with Pap stain analysis performed by cytopathologists at the VA Medical Center in Denver, and CT scans read by independent radiologists under the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) Enrollment and Screening Protocol. Results determined on the sputum samples with the investigational CyPath® assay in the Biomoda lab are then compared to these diagnostic results. Such results will be utilized by Biomoda to help plan a large clinical study that will lead to FDA approval of the CyPath® assay.

In the proclamation issued Nov. 9, Richardson cited estimates that more New Mexicans will die from lung cancer each year than from other cancers that receive substantially more funding for research and early detection. Richardson acknowledged the Lung Cancer Alliance, a national non-profit organization, for its patient support and advocacy work for people living with lung cancer or at risk for the disease.

Cousins said the Lung Cancer Alliance’s support for early detection has focused attention on the need for FDA approval of Biomoda’s diagnostic. “We are appreciative of the Lung Cancer Alliance’s efforts at the national, state and local levels to raise awareness and increase funding for research,” Cousins said. “Screening studies like this will provide much-needed data on risk assessment, improved survivability and the importance of early diagnosis.”

Based in Albuquerque, N.M., Biomoda (www.biomoda.com) is a cancer diagnostics company focused on the development and FDA approval of accurate, inexpensive and noninvasive in-vitro tests for the early detection of cancer in large populations.

CONTACT:

          Biomoda, Inc.
          John Cousins
          505.821.0875
          investor@biomoda.com