The scourge of obesity throughout North America is taking as much effort as any foreign war. The battle of the bulge -- leading to such other health hazards as heart disease and diabetes -- is a worry for health-care professionals and families alike. Any shred of good news of developments that can help win the weight war would be most certainly welcome.
So, it was remarkable that, on the day after Mother’s Day, Winnipeg-based Miraculins Inc. (TSX-Venture:MOM) announced it had signed a letter of intent (LOI) with PreMD Inc. to license exclusive worldwide rights to the PreVu Skin Cholesterol Test, a simple non-invasive diagnostic test for the quantification of skin tissue cholesterol.
Developed as a cost-effective method of assisting with the risk assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD), the product has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance and has been successfully test marketed in the United States and Canada.
The news was noteworthy because, as a relatively new risk factor for heart disease, skin cholesterol provides valuable additional information for CAD risk assessment. Skin contains over 11% of the body's cholesterol and ages in parallel with vascular connective tissue.
As blood vessel walls accumulate cholesterol, so does skin tissue. A high skin cholesterol level is a reliable predictor of higher cholesterol accumulation in the arteries and, accordingly, risk of heart disease.
The test has been cleared in Europe and Canada as a general part of CAD risk assessment. In the United States, the test has received clearance as an adjunct to current risk assessment procedures for patients considered at risk for CAD.
MOM is a medical diagnostic development company focused on non-invasive tests for unmet clinical needs. Its lead program, a suite of biomarkers for preeclampsia, is partnered with Inverness Medical Innovations (NYSE:IMA), one of the world's largest diagnostic companies.
The company began operations in 2002 as a research and development company focused on biomarker discovery using its proprietary B.E.S.T Platform™ for the screening and identification of target proteins and peptides related to diseases. MOM’s initial purpose when it set out was to discover and validate cancer biomarkers for use in developing diagnostic tools and therapeutic products.
In part due to the malaise gripping world stock markets the week before, the news of the announcement boosted MOM’s stock price 23% on May 10 to eight cents, it has since slipped a bit to $0.075 on May 11th. That still puts the shares in the middle of a 52-week trading range that bottomed out at four cents last August before surging to 13 cents last January.
But with bad cholesterol being such a health risk, and every device known to the medical community being needed to fight it, this company can soon be taking on partners -- and investors -- before too long.
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