Synergenz awarded $94,836 research grant under federal QTDP program

Nov 3 2010

Synergenz BioScience, Inc., a leader in predictive risk stratification for smoking-related lung cancer, was awarded a research grant under the Federal Government's Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) program.

“This grant recognizes that personalized, predictive data can help prevent the country's leading cancer killer”

The $94,836 grant will assist Synergenz's ongoing clinical utility trials for Respiragene, a genetic-based test for lung cancer predisposition. Respiragene identifies the subset of individuals most likely to develop lung cancer from their smoking habit -- before disease strikes -- allowing doctors to improve preventative care for a cancer usually diagnosed too late to save their patients.

The grant process was established by the US Government's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and funds are awarded by the US Department of the Treasury after review by the Department of Health and Human Services.

QTDP eligibility requires projects to show potential to "develop new treatments that address unmet medical needs or chronic and acute diseases; reduce long-term health care costs; or represent a significant advance in finding a cure for cancer."

"This grant recognizes that personalized, predictive data can help prevent the country's leading cancer killer," said Stephen Markscheid, CEO of Synergenz. "We will demonstrate that Respiragene usage translates into better care and lower costs by aiding earlier, better-targeted detection efforts and prevention through enhanced smoking cessation success."

Lung cancer kills 157,000 Americans annually, a toll blamed on wide smoking prevalence and evidence that early physical symptoms are often overlooked or diagnosed too late to be curable.

More than half of patients die within 12 months of diagnosis and only 15% survive five years or longer. 90% of lung cancers occur in current or former smokers, a group including one in three American adults, yet strikes only 10 - 15% of this group, prompting an acute need to prioritize intervention for those at highest risk.