Former Pfizer Research Fellow Assumes Key Role at iCardiac Technologies
Rochester, New York – May 8, 2008 – iCardiac Technologies, Inc., a leader in advanced cardiac safety analysis and biomarker development, today announced the expansion of its scientific team with the hiring of Anthony A. Fossa, Ph.D., who will serve as vice president for cardiac safety and the head of iCardiac’s scientific consulting group.
Dr. Fossa will further iCardiac’s advanced research in cardiac toxicity which underpins its analytic services to pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies. iCardiac’s advanced ECG-based repolarization biomarkers and analysis help drug companies to differentiate between compounds that pose excessive risk of heart arrhythmias and those with minimal or no risk.
“Dr. Fossa’s tremendous experience in the fields of pharmacology, toxicology, and cardiac safety will add further depth to our scientific team,” said CEO Mikael Totterman. “In particular, he will spearhead the research behind our Holter-based beat-to-beat repolarization analysis.”
Portable Holter monitors record information over a 24 to 72 hour period. The repolarization process and its abnormalities underlie the vast majority of drug induced arrhymthmia problems.
Prior to joining iCardiac, Dr. Fossa spent 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, including 22 years at Pfizer, Inc. At Pfizer he worked on numerous early Discovery/Development teams as a Research Fellow and helped to form the company’s General Pharmacology group in 1988. Dr. Fossa was responsible for conducting in vivo preclinical cardiovascular assessments on more than 150 clinical drug candidates and was a key contributor on four successful commercial products. He also was one of the original founding members of the General Pharmacology/Safety Pharmacology Steering committee, which today is known as the Safety Pharmacology Society.
Dr. Fossa has authored numerous peer-review journal articles about cardiovascular assessment and currently holds multiple patents for novel innovations related to cardiac safety. Most recently, his research has used Holter beat-to-beat dynamics to assess arrhythmia liability related to human QT prolongation.About iCardiac Technologies, Inc.
iCardiac Technologies, Inc. develops and implements advanced ECG-based cardiac safety biomarkers. iCardiac’s advanced ECG-based cardiac safety analysis service stems from more than 30 years of research at the University of Rochester, a leading institution for ventricular arrhythmias and cardiac repolarization. iCardiac’s analysis service provides drug developers with more precise and cost-effective methods for QT interval measurement. At the same time, it provides Beyond QT,sm a suite of advanced ECG-based cardiac safety markers that deliver more insight for determining the cardiac risk profile of drugs in development. For more information, visit: www.icardiac.com.
