OCTOBER 15, 2020
As published in the San Antonio Business Journal
By: W. Scott Bailey – Senior Reporter, San-Antonio Business Journal
BioAffinity Technologies has teamed with a global medical device manufacturer, Smiths Medical, to expand the commercial reach and viability of the San Antonio-based company’s CyPath Lung® diagnostic cancer detection test.
Under the agreement, bioAffinity will have access to Smith Medical’s Acapella technology, a vibratory positive expiratory pressure therapy device that will enable people, especially those at high risk, to collect sputum samples at home that will be analyzed by the San Antonio company through its noninvasive CyPath Lung® test.
The deal is expected to draw more interest among investors to the privately held Alamo City biotech.
“Our partnership with Smiths Medical marks a significant advancement in the commercialization of CyPath Lung®,” bioAffinity Technologies CEO Maria Zannes told me.
JehanZeb Noor, CEO of Smiths Medical, said the agreement with bioAffinity will better facilitate people’s access to a “breakthrough test that can detect lung cancer at its earliest stages when treatment can be most effective and lives can be saved.”
BioAffinity’s recent test validation trial for its CyPath technology indicated a high sensitivity and specificity in detecting lung cancer, particularly in the very early stage when there are more treatment options available and better patient outcomes, Zannes said.
The deal with Smiths Medical provides more timely momentum.
“BioAffinity Technologies, with its CyPath Lung® cancer test and other products in the pipeline, has significant potential to be a worldwide leader in the oncology field,” Zannes said. “We will be working closely with Smiths Medical as we advance onto the national and global stage.”
San Antonio-based Precision Pathology Services has licensed and is developing CyPath Lung® as a laboratory developed test, or LDT. Once that LDT process is completed, bioAffinity will have an opportunity to market the test to physicians with patients who are at high risk for lung cancer.
BioAffinity’s leaders are engaging with larger health care investment firms that have shown interest in participating in the company’s Series B funding round. The biotech has also opened a smaller bridge round for accredited investors.
The deal with Smiths could funnel more funding to San Antonio and to bioAffinity.
“Our partnership with Smiths Medical is an important step forward in commercializing CyPath Lung®,” Zannes said. “It is important to investors that bioAffinity Technologies continues to meet its milestones, and we have done so even in this more difficult time operating in the midst of a pandemic.”
