Athera Biotechnologies and ALPCO sign distribution agreement

Athera Biotechnologies AB, an atherosclerosis R&D company developing novel products for treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and ALPCO, a company providing high quality research immunoassays, announced today that they have signed a distribution agreement.

Sean Conley, COO of ALPCO, said "We are very excited about the opportunities presented by this agreement, which will enable us to offer a new CVD biomarker to customers in North America. CVDefine(R) may add important and independent information in cardiovascular risk assessment and we believe there is a lot of interest from scientist in the field to use this to generate further clinical research data".

High levels of IgM antibodies against phosphorylcholine (anti-PC) have been shown to be predictive of less atherosclerosis development in hypertensive patients after a five-year follow up. However, in 2008 data indicating that low anti-PC levels predict an increased risk of CVD were presented. One study included myocardial infarction (MI) patients and suggested that anti-PC measurements could be used to predict the likelihood of secondary CVD events up to six months after an initial event. This has since been followed up with another study involving over 1000 ACS patients. The product, CVDefine, was introduced last year and provides an easy-to-use ELISA kit (Research Use Only) for quantitative analysis of anti-PC in human blood. A CVDefine CE-marked kit is available in Europe.

"This distribution agreement is another important step for Athera as we expand in the North American market. This agreement broadens our presence and increases the exposure of our trademark. I am pleased with the opportunities this represents and I look forward to working with the efficient and experienced team from ALPCO", says Carina Schmidt, CEO Athera Biotechnologies AB.