The Alamo City company has gained new commercial access that could greatly expand its reach and its revenue.
As published in the San Antonio Business Journal
By W. Scott Bailey – Senior Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
BioAffinity Technologies Inc. has reached a significant milestone on its march to market.
The San Antonio-based biotech’s core technology, CyPath Lung, a non-invasive, early-stage cancer detection test, will be added to the U.S. Federal Supply Schedule, a procurement system that provides the Veterans Health Administration and Military Health System access to breakthrough health care products.
It’s a major commercial opportunity for the roughly 10-year-old company and for a San Antonio bioscience industry that’s worked to align technology and military medicine.
“The award from the Veterans Administration placing CyPath Lung on the Federal Supply Schedule is very important to the company’s growth and fulfillment of our mission to diagnose lung cancer at (an) early stage when treatment is most effective,” bioAffinity President and CEO Maria Zannes told me.
BioAffinity (NASDAQ: BIAF) initially focused its commercialization efforts on Texas physicians and patients as it began commercialization of CyPath.
“Listing on the Federal Supply Schedule opens a much larger, nationwide market for CyPath Lung,” said Zannes, whose father, a veteran, died of lung cancer at the age of 39.
The VHA, part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, serves more than 9 million veterans annually and is the largest integrated health care system in the country, providing care at nearly 1,400 medical facilities.
Approximately 8,000 veterans are diagnosed and treated for lung cancer annually, according to the VA. It’s the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among veterans despite being one of the more preventable, according to Zannes.
Veterans are at higher risk for lung cancer due to older age, smoking and environmental exposure during and after military service.
As a result of the company being added to the Federal Supply Schedule VA and Department of Defense, physicians will now be able to order CyPath Lung for their patients to help detect early-stage lung cancer. That could help slow the number of cancer-related deaths and expand commercial opportunities for bioAffinity.
BioAffinity has made a move in its executive ranks as it pursues expanded commercial opportunities. The company has named J. Michael Edwards as its new chief financial officer. Edwards, who has served as bioAffinity’s interim CFO since Sept. 15, was previously in a consulting role with the company, overseeing its initial public offering in 2022.
“His experience and deep familiarity with bioAffinity make him the ideal CFO to oversee the long-term financial and strategic direction of the company, including the ongoing commercialization of CyPath Lung,” Zannes said.
Edwards said bioAffinity is entering a “pivotal commercialization stage.”
