Sydney, Australia, 8 April 2015 – Clarity Pharmaceuticals, a radiopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious disease, has signed a licensing agreement with Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute (Melbourne, Australia) to develop a diagnostic for the detection of rupture-prone plaque.
The importance of detecting unstable, rupture-prone plaque, especially to prevent recurrent heart attacks, cannot be overstated and has the possibility of saving millions of lives. The most recent forecasts from Research and Markets (2014) support this view and predict that atherosclerosis and vulnerable plaque will be the major applications and market drivers of the PET cardiology nuclear medicine market.
Every year, more than 19 million people worldwide and more than 1 million people in the United States experience a sudden cardiac event, resulting in over 450 000 deaths annually in the United States alone. A large portion of this population has no prior symptoms. The vast majority of myocardial infractions are caused by acute rupture of vulnerable plaques, resulting in the formation of clots in the coronary arteries, subsequent vessel occlusion and ultimately loss in cardiac function and often sudden cardiac death.
With this technology – developed by Professor Karlheinz Peter and his team from Baker IDI’s Athero-thrombosis & Vascular laboratory – Clarity is now among the pioneers in this field and is eager to build its capability and advance the product through clinical trials.
In the context of this medical need and market dynamic, Clarity is committed to increasing its expertise through collaboration with academia, industry and the government in order to ensure better patient outcomes.
