BG Medicine and Boston Scientific have entered into a research collaboration agreement to study the role of galectin-3 as an aid in patient screening for cardiac-resynchronization therapy (CRT) using patient data from the MADIT-CRT study.
MADIT-CRT is a randomized CRT-D study of New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class I and II patients, with more than 1,800 patients enrolled at 110 centers worldwide.
The collaboration is designed to focus on better understanding the important MADIT-CRT patient population and whether galectin-3 can help identify patients who would derive the most benefit from CRT.
The collaboration also involves using BG Medicine‘s biomarker discovery capabilities to identify other biomarkers that correlate to CRT treatment response.
The US Food and Drug Administration recently cleared the BG Medicine galectin-3 assay as an aid in assessing the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure.
BG Medicine is a life sciences company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel diagnostics based on biomarkers to improve patient outcomes and contain healthcare costs.