Human Medicine

GeneSTAT technology is uniquely appropriate for the physician’s office, where diagnostic tests already account for more than $5 billion in annual revenues. However, access to DNA and RNA diagnostics remains absent due to the lack of an easy-to-use and rapid onsite system. GeneSTAT technology may be particularly well suited for managed healthcare systems, which have been striving to reduce the higher costs associated with outpatient testing. The fastest-growing DNA test market in human medicine is the one for cervical cancer, with an annual growth of 30-40%. Worldwide sales for cervical cancer DNA tests exceeded $200 million in 2006 and are expected to top $1 billion annually by 2010. Meanwhile, present technologies for cervical cancer screening are burdensome, time consuming and inherently more costly than is GeneSTAT testing. Moreover, these procedures are frequently unavailable not only because of their complicated natures and high costs, but also a lacking ability to do testing onsite. Hundreds of millions of women go unchecked as a consequence. That means that more than 300,000 women die each year from cervical cancer, and is due in no small way to the unavailability of a more convenient and accurate test.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

The incidence of MRSA, or the so-called "superbug," is rising worldwide. MRSA infections lead to pneumonia, blood-stream infections and necrotizing fasciitis or “flesh-eating disease.” Deaths involving MRSA have increased more than 15-fold since 1993. MRSA is no longer restricted to humans and is now emerging as a significant zoonotic (a disease that can spread from animals to people) and veterinary disease in its own right. Early, accurate diagnosis and the treatment of infections with strain-appropriate antibiotics are key to reducing morbidity and mortality, and these would be considerably assisted by GeneSTAT use.

Malaria is a complex and deadly disease that puts approximately 3.3 billion people at risk in 109 countries and territories around the world. In 2000, there were between 350 and 500 million cases of malaria and at least one million deaths world-wide, most of them in African children. In addition to its health toll, malaria places a heavy economic burden on many endemic countries, contributing to the cycle of poverty and limiting economic development. For example, Africa alone is estimated to lose at least US $12 billion per year in direct losses (e.g. illness, treatment, premature death), and many times more than that in lost economic growth.  Click here to view an interview of Mr. Cyril Boynes, Jr. - Executive Vice President of International Affairs (CORE) and Senior Advisor to CORE-Uganda, regarding the East African Experience in Malaria Prevention and Control.