Verax Biomedical Names Chief Executive Officer
September 5, 2006
WORCESTER, Mass., Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Verax Biomedical, Inc., a leading developer of rapid tests for detecting bacterial contaminants found in blood cells and tissue, has announced the appointment of James Lousararian as CEO. He had been a consultant to the company since the fall of 2005.
Lousararian, 47, has extensive senior management experience in the medical device industry. Prior to joining Verax, he was president, CEO and co-founder of AngioLink, a start-up venture in the field of wound management and interventional cardiology. Earlier, he was vice president of ThermoRetec Corp., a Thermal Electron company, and co-founder of both ArthroSurface Inc., an orthopedics company, and Spirus Medical, Inc., a medical device company in the area of gastroenterology and urology. Lousararian began his career at Hale and Dorr, a major Boston law firm.
Verax Biomedical truly has one of the leading platforms for detecting bacterial contamination in blood products and other cellular material,
Lousararian said. I am thrilled to lead the Verax Biomedical team in aggressively pursuing growth strategies to build the company into a market leader.
Verax's Platelet PGD(R) test is designed to detect the presence of a broad range of clinically-relevant gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial contaminants in platelets just prior to transfusion. The test is a single-use disposable device that requires minimal labor and provides a result in less than 30 minutes. Bacterial contamination of platelets is the most significant infectious risk in the blood supply today, with an estimated rate of contamination of 1 in every 2,000 units collected.
Mr. Lousararian holds a degree in accounting from the University of Massachusetts and a law degree from the University of Chicago.
About Verax Biomedical, Inc.
Based in Worcester, Mass., Verax Biomedical (http://www.veraxbiomedical.com) is a leader in the development of rapid tests designed to detect a broad range of bacterial contaminants based upon its proprietary Pan Genera Detection (PGD) technology. The first target application for its technology is to test for the presence of bacterial contaminants in the blood supply. Bacterial contaminants in platelets and red blood cells represent the greatest lethal infectious risks in transfusion medicine today, and no rapid, simple methods are presently available to effectively address this threat. Over 17 million patients receive in excess of 60 million units of these individual blood components annually in North America, Europe and Asia.
CONTACT: Sam Everett
(508) 795-0535
severett@rdwgroup.com
