Description Of Company
Vigilant Biosciences, Inc. ("VigilantBIO") was founded in 2011 to identify and develop a pipeline of improved healthcare products aimed at early intervention for cost effective and enhanced patient care. The company is currently trialing its initial product: an easy-to-use, highly specific, low-cost and noninvasive screening kit for oral cancer that allows for detection before visual symptoms present. VigilantBIO has assembled an extraordinarily talented and experienced management team and presented both its products and business plan at various events and forums. In 2012, the company was the recipient of the coveted AUTM Venture Forum start-up of the year award for life sciences.
Description Of Technology Licensed
VigilantBIO received an exclusive license from the University of Miami on intellectual property based on human clinical data developed by scientific founder, Elizabeth Franzmann, M.D. The technology relates to a method of diagnosing head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) by measuring and analyzing levels of specific biomarkers in a subject's oral rinse. This technology is being developed as a low-cost, non-invasive and selective point-of-care adjunctive screening test for oral cancer. The sensitivity and specificity of these biomarkers in detection of pre-cancerous cells for HNSCC are comparable or superior to that of the Pap smear test, considered the "gold standard" screening test for a different type of squamous cell carcinoma (i.e. HPV-related cervical cancers). The VigilantBIO oral cancer screening product has a sensitivity range within 80-90% and a specificity range within 88-100% versus the Pap smear sensitivity and specificity range of 61-72% and 82-94%, respectively. In addition, the kit has the advantage that saliva and other fluids collected in an oral rinse is an easily accessible biofluid and does not require invasive collection. The first U.S. patent for this technology was recently issued as U.S. Patent No. 8,088,591 with additional patent applications pending.
Description of collaborations/investments sought
Please contact VigilantBIO for additional information.
