CytoCore readies for upgraded Pap test device

CytoCore (Chicago), a late-stage bio-scientific research company advancing tools and testing for the early detection and diagnosis of deadly reproductive cancers, said it is ready to start making its cutting-edge e2 Collector sample retrieval device.

With a prototype model and engineering design refined through a thorough manufacturing development process, CytoCore is ready this month to start production on the e2 Collector for clinical testing, FDA review and subsequent distribution worldwide, the company said. According to CytoCore, the sample-collecting device’s handle and balloon disposable component offer “excellent performance comparison and distinct patient comfort improvement over the brush-and-spatula method currently used by doctors in taking routine Pap samples for the early screening of cervical cancer.”

The company’s immediate focus will be on a clinical trial, which should be completed within 90 days, with FDA review to follow shortly afterward and sales and distribution agreements anticipated both within the U.S. and abroad, CytoCore said.

The first significant upgrade to the Pap test in 50 years, the e2 Collector is a small disposable balloon device designed to enhance the thoroughness and consistency of cell collections for the Pap smear and HPV test screenings performed annually on some 180 million women worldwide, the company said.

CytoCore develops cost-effective cancer screening systems, which can be utilized in a laboratory or at the point-of-care, to assist in the early detection of cervical, endometrial, and other cancers.

Provista moves to larger quarters

Provista Life Sciences (Phoenix) reported relocating its headquarters to offices at 2400 Biltmore Circle, Ste. 1200, Phoenix, Arizona, enabling expansion of the three biotech diagnostic development companies overseen by Provista: GW Medical Technologies, Biomarker Technologies and RCP Diagnostics. Provista said it will continue to lease office space at that address, which will be converted to an on-site clinical diagnostics laboratory.

According to CEO William Gartner, “Relocating into larger headquarters allows Provista to more efficiently manage each operating unit's business resources. At the same time, we now have the ability to establish the clinical laboratory that will be pivotal to accelerating the commercialization of diagnostics technologies currently in the final testing stage.”

Provista is an umbrella organization that identifies and acquires the rights to medical diagnostics technologies and then unifies their operational and business development activities under a single management. GW Medical Technologies is focused on commercializing a blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. Biomarker Technologies is focused on commercialization of an early detection blood diagnostic for breast cancer. RCP Diagnostics is developing a screening diagnostic for women’s estrogen-related cancers: ovarian, uterine, cervical and breast.

ND Systems now NDS Surgical Imaging

ND Systems (NDS; San Jose, California), a developer of surgical and medical visualization equipment, has changed its name to NDS Surgical Imaging. The company also has moved from Morgan Hill, California to a 73,000-square-foot facility in San Jose, California, tripling its size.

“After 10 years of operating as ND Systems,” said Carmen Piucci, president/CEO, “we are sending a strong message to the worldwide healthcare industry that our product suite touches all aspects of surgical imaging solutions. This includes high-definition visualization systems, operating room digital imaging control systems, digital signal processors and routers, digital image capture systems, integration technologies, as well as infection control products. We are proud that each of our products bears the NDS hallmarks of innovation, engineering excellence and enhanced patient care. The new, expanded corporate and manufacturing facility will enable us to better meet the growing needs of our customers.”

NDS Surgical says its products are designed to enable practitioners to integrate information from many sources, to visualize a defect or condition within the body and to perform an intervention that improves quality of care. It says it created the industry’s first Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technologies for minimally invasive surgery viewing applications in 1996.