Press Kit: Company Overview

History of Provista Life Sciences

Established in 2006, Phoenix-based Provista Life Sciences is a healthcare and biotechnology development organization dedicated to bringing innovative tests for early disease detection to medical professionals and patients nationwide. The organization offers testing services in two areas: oncology and central nervous system diseases.

Provista Life Sciences CEO William Gartner founded the organization to help save and improve lives through the early detection of critical diseases facing today's population. Gartner set out to utilize his more than 35 years' experience in the environmental and medical fields, with an extensive history of product development, operational oversight and technology transfer, to develop an organization that delivers diagnostic tests never before seen on the market.

To build the organization, Gartner partnered with chief medical players, including Robert Woods, president, Provista Diagnostics, Provista Life Sciences' laboratory arm, who has more than 27 years of hands-on operational and management experience, and Dr. Louis Kirby, chief medical officer, with more than 18 years of drug development and clinical research experience. Gartner also tapped Randy Grimes to spearhead grant development through the National Institutes of Health and Don Webber to foster strategic alliances and partnerships. With their integral specialties, Gartner and his team began developing the breakthrough testing technologies that are changing the face of the healthcare diagnostics market.

Innovative Technologies

Gartner and his team have been actively working to bring the company's innovative tests to the public to help people live longer, healthier lives. Specifically, the organization offers two distinctive oncological tests for women, a test to aid in the early detection of Alzheimer's disease, as well as two memory tests.

• Breast Cancer Detection

The Biomarker Translation Test, or, the BT Test™, is a simple blood test that aids in the early detection of breast cancer. When detected and treated in its early stages, breast cancer has a 96 percent survival rate - yet the disease kills more women than any other form of cancer. Provista Life Sciences seeks to encourage the nearly 35 million women per year who do not get screened for breast cancer to do so, as early detection provides the best chance for a cure.

The BT Test is designed to complement other testing methods to aid doctors in more accurately diagnosing breast cancer in its early stages, when life-saving treatment is most effective. Designed to be prescribed in conjunction with annual mammograms, the BT Test helps ensure that patients receive the most thorough diagnosis possible. The test is now available nationwide.

• Women's Cancer Detection

Frequently undiagnosed, women's reproductive cancers - including ovarian, uterine and cervical cancer - often go undetected in their early stages, allowing the cancer to spread. To fight these deadly diseases, Provista Life Sciences created the RCP Test™. With the goal of narrowing the timeframe between cancer incidence and cancer detection, the test offers an opportunity for physicians to drastically improve their patients' treatment outcomes.

When used in conjunction with other early detection methods, such as mammograms and Pap smears, the test can help doctors accurately diagnose cancer sooner. The RCP Test measures molecular markers for the presence of a tumor in a noninvasive, effective way, offering fewer false negatives, fewer false positives and consistent results. Provista Life Sciences is in the final stages of clinical studies and hopes to bring the test to market in late 2008.

• Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Loss Detection

More than 600,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with chronic, progressive dementia. Of those, 400,000 are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Provista Life Sciences is meeting the need for a simple, accurate Alzheimer's test with the LymPro Test®, a blood test that is designed to work in conjunction with traditional diagnostic methods to help physicians develop a more timely and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

By assisting in the early detection of the disease, the LymPro Test has the potential to help doctors diagnose Alzheimer's more efficiently, allowing patients to begin treatment early, when currently approved drugs are most effective at slowing the disease's progression. Under development by Provista Diagnostics, the LymPro Test currently is involved in a National Institutes of Health Phase II Study that will be completed in the spring of 2008.

Additionally, Provista Life Sciences offers an over-the-counter self-administered test for cognitive and memory impairment: The Provista Memory Test™. The Provista Memory Test for cognition is a take-at-home test that is scored with a simple phone call to a Provista Life Sciences expert. While the Memory Test cannot diagnose a disease, it is a powerful tool to help understand if an individual has any loss of mental ability and help determine whether further action should be taken.

The Memory Test Plus is the only FDA cleared “smell test” available, as the loss of the sense of smell may indicate a medical problem that requires follow-up by a physician. Early detection of developing medical conditions can lead to early treatment and improved quality of life.

Provista Life Sciences brought both of these tests to market in early 2008. Find out more about the memory tests.

Setting New Standards

The organization's first line of responsibility is, and always has been, to the people who take Provista Life Sciences' tests, to give them the best chance at defeating deadly diseases. Through each of its unique tests, Provista Life Sciences is at the forefront of diagnostic technologies and is setting new standards in early diagnosis testing methods.

To support the ongoing goal of continued scientific and medical research, Provista Life Sciences has assembled a Medical Advisory Group to provide input on the overall medical and study planning. The Medical Advisory Group also functions as a referral source for subjects to participate in the various studies the organization offers, allowing Provista Life Sciences to further its clinical trials and research.

The group is comprised of highly renowned experts in key medical areas including oncology, radiology, neurology and surgery, as well as a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments laboratory operations specialist and a regulatory/FDA consultant.

Provista Life Sciences is dedicated to continuing to bring revolutionary technologies to the market to help save or improve the lives of people facing some of the most prevalent and serious diseases. The company is proud to have made the BT Test and the Provista Memory Test and Memory Test Plus available to the public, and looks forward to completing clinical trials for each of its additional diagnostic technologies to bring them to market in the near future.