Miraculins Signs Agreement with Pear Healthcare Solutions to
Distribute PreVu® in the Canadian Retail Pharmacy Market
Groundbreaking Skin Cholesterol Testing Programs to be Developed
for Canadians
WINNIPEG,
Manitoba – April 18, 2012 -Miraculins Inc., a medical
diagnostic company focused on acquiring, developing and commercializing
diagnostic tests and risk assessment technologies for unmet clinical needs, and
Pear Healthcare Solutions Inc., a leading provider of in-pharmacy health
screening and education services, today announce an agreement that will see the
PreVu® Non-Invasive Skin Cholesterol Point of Care (POC) Test distributed
to the Canadian retail pharmacy market.
Pear Healthcare Solutions will distribute the PreVuPOC Test to Canadian retail
pharmacies and work with pharmacy partners to establish coronary artery disease
(CAD) screening programs using skin cholesterol and other known risk factors
for implementation in pharmacy settings across the country. The PreVu POC Test
contains two components: the PreVu Handheld Spectrophotometer, which is used to
both guide the operator through the test and take the skin cholesterol reading;
and the Reagent Test Kit, comprised of reagent solution and test consumables.
The short-term focus of Pear Healthcare Solutions will be to establish pilot
testing locations for the testing programs. Once a successful implementation
model has been established, Pear will be responsible for a broad national
roll-out of the program at pharmacy locations Canada-wide.
“Pear has pioneered a number of highly successful market introductions and
in-store risk assessment clinics at Canadian pharmacies,” said Mark Doyle, Vice
President of Sales and Marketing for Pear Healthcare Solutions Inc. “Based on
our track record of past successes implementing health assessment programs
using innovative products, we know that there is tremendous interest in public
screening programs utilizing novel, non-invasive technologies like PreVu.
“Leveraging our existing relationships with Canada’s largest retail pharmacy
chains, we are confident in a strong response from our customers to the
introduction of the PreVu Non-Invasive Skin Cholesterol Test,” continued Doyle.
“Despite the risk information available to patients and caregivers today, there
are over 70,000 heart attacks in Canada each year, resulting in over 16,000
deaths,” stated Paul Moreau, Vice President, Sales & Marketing for
Miraculins Inc. “In less than five minutes, and without discomfort, drawing
blood or requiring fasting, PreVu can identify Canadians with hidden, high
levels of risk of CAD and impress upon them as never before the importance of
seeing their healthcare professionals for a full evaluation of their heart
disease risk factors towards prevention of that first critical event.
“We are very pleased to be working with Pear Healthcare Solutions to make the
PreVu POC Test available to Canadian communities and families through retail
pharmacies,” Moreau added. “Our agreement with Pear is consistent with our
stated strategy to partner with market leaders, and as further evidenced by our
recent partnership announcement with The Stevens Company to reach the
medical/clinical channel, we continue to leverage relationships with
exceptional companies towards making PreVu available to at-risk Canadians who
need it most.”
About the PreVu
Non-Invasive Skin Cholesterol Test
Skin cholesterol is the cholesterol that has been deposited and diffused into
tissue, as opposed to free circulating in the bloodstream, and has been shown
in clinical trials to be strongly associated with significant CAD as measured
by treadmill stress testing, coronary angiography, coronary calcium and carotid
artery thickening. The PreVu POC Test is completely painless, non-invasive,
involves no blood draw or needles, requires no overnight fasting and involves
no handling of potentially hazardous biomaterials. It has been developed to
provide new and additive information about CAD risk that is independent of
traditional risk factors, such as blood cholesterol, to help physicians more
effectively assess their patients’ risk. The test is conducted in less than 5
minutes with results being immediately available.
About Pear
Healthcare Solutions
Pear Healthcare Solutions is a privately held company specializing in the
development and implementation of programs to address the evolving needs of
pharmacists in their expanding role of providing healthcare and disease
management services. Pear Healthcare Solutions offers a number of innovative
medical devices and professional education programs that help pharmacies
connect with their patients, improving their health and wellness. Pear
provides distribution, training and support/education services. For more
information visit www.pearhealthcare.com.
About Miraculins
Inc.
Miraculins is a medical diagnostic development company focused on acquiring,
developing and commercializing non-invasive tests for unmet clinical needs. The
Company’s PreVu test is a revolutionary new coronary artery disease risk
assessment technology that measures cholesterol levels in a patient’s skin
non-invasively, painlessly and without the need for fasting. The PreVu
Non-Invasive Skin Cholesterol Point of Care (POC) Test technology has been
cleared for sale by Health Canada and CE-Marked in the European Union. PreVu
has previously been successfully test marketed in North America on a limited
basis. Miraculins’ additional programs include a research use only ELISA kit
for the detection of PSP94; and a suite of biomarkers to aid in the early
detection of the devastating disease of pregnancy known as preeclampsia. The
Company’s preeclampsia program is being advanced in partnership with Alere,
Inc. (NYSE:ALR) (formerly known as Inverness Medical Innovations), one of the
world’s largest diagnostic companies.
For more
information, please contact:
Christopher J. Moreau
President and CEO
Miraculins Inc.
Ph: 204-477-7599
Fax: 204-453-1546
info@miraculins.com
www.miraculins.com
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Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy
or accuracy of this release.
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Forward-Looking Information
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contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information within
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actual results to differ materially from these expectations include, among
other things: Miraculins’ early stage of development, lack of product revenues
and history of operating losses, uncertainties related to clinical trials and
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Miraculins cautions that the foregoing list of important factors that may
affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on Miraculins’
forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to Miraculins
investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other
uncertainties and potential events.
These risks and
uncertainties should be considered carefully and prospective investors should
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management believes to be reasonable assumptions, Miraculins cannot provide
assurance that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking
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forward-looking statement.
PreVu® is a
registered trademark of Miraculins Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2012.
Copyright (C) 2010
Miraculins Inc. All rights reserved.