Diadexus and Mayo Clinic Join Forces on PLAC Activity Test to Improve Patient Care for Cardiovascular Diseases

ROCHESTER, MN and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 28, 2015) - Diadexus, Inc. (OTCQB: DDXS), a diagnostics company developing and commercializing products that aid in the prediction of cardiac disease risk, and Mayo Clinic recently signed an agreement to collaborate in the areas of education, research, and innovation on the PLAC^® Test for Lp-PLA2 Activity. The test, which has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is used to help identify risk for coronary heart disease in patients with no history of cardiovascular events.

As part of the agreement, Mayo Clinic's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology will participate in the Diadexus Laboratory Partnership Program, where Diadexus will provide educational support during the proper integration and use of Lp-PLA2 Activity testing in the clinical practice. Once fully integrated, the test will be available to patients and providers worldwide through Mayo Clinic's reference laboratory Mayo Medical Laboratories, which offers advanced laboratory testing and pathology services to more than 5,000 health care organizations.

"The PLAC Test for Lp-PLA2 Activity is an advanced tool that has demonstrated a unique and independent value in assessing the risk of heart attack, cardiovascular death, and the need for revascularization in patients at risk of such a first event," says Kenneth Fang, M.D., chief medical officer of Diadexus. "The collaboration with Mayo Clinic will provide valuable leadership in education and research and access to this robust new cardiovascular biomarker test."

"Research has shown that the use of lipid panel testing is often not sufficient for identifying a patient's risk for heart disease. When there is ambiguity, the measurement of Lp-PLA2 activity levels can be extremely helpful in defining those at risk," says Allan Jaffe, M.D., consultant and chair of the Division of Clinical Core Laboratory Services at Mayo Clinic, with a joint appointment in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases. "The ability for us to integrate this assay directly into our laboratory facilities at Mayo will help us better identify those at risk and allow for appropriate interventions."