March 17, 2008
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif., Mar. 17, 2008 - Lipomics Technologies, Inc., a privately held company
that specializes in developing diagnostics for managing metabolic and cardiovascular disease,
announced today that it is launching an effort to validate its proprietary biomarkers for fatty liver
disease.
Lipomics' proprietary lipid biomarkers proved effective in identifying patients with varying
degrees of metabolic liver disorders in recent clinical trials. This new initiative will focus on
accessing large clinical cohorts for validating its diagnostic products through the company's
collaborative network. Lipomics will use its analytical and bioinformatic technology to validate the
clinical utility of its biomarkers associated with various aspects of fatty liver disease.
According to The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases (NIDDK),
approximately 10-20% of Americans are affected with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),
a disease characterized by excess fat accumulation in the liver in patients that consume little or no
alcohol. Some patients with NAFLD progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a more
severe disease, characterized by hepatic fat accumulation combined with inflammation. NASH is
thought to affect approximately 2-5% of Americans and can progress to an irreversible stage that
includes cirrhosis and liver failure. Diabetics, overweight and obese people are at significant risk
of developing these fatty liver disorders.
Because the only accurate method of detecting NAFLD or NASH is a liver biopsy, the diseases are
under-diagnosed and poorly managed. Lipomics is developing blood-based diagnostics for the
early detection of NAFLD, the ability to distinguish between NAFLD and NASH, and other
diagnostics for liver health.
“The current gold standard of diagnosis is invasive liver biopsy. Our diagnostics provide noninvasive
blood-based tests that will empower doctors to detect liver disorders in their earliest
stages and support management of patient care where liver disease is present. These safe and
effective tests will open the door to a greatly improved standard of care for millions of patients”,
said Steve Watkins, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Lipomics.