MolecularHealth Aiming to Enter U.S. Market

MolecularHealth, the Swiss firm whose molecular tests focus on oncology care and drug testing, is gearing up for a major distribution and sales push in the United States. The company has opened an office in the Houston suburbs and appointed an executive staff, all formerly of U.S. Oncology, the Houston-area operator of community-based cancer practices. It will operate a laboratory on-site. MolecularHealth’s chief executive officer for its U.S. operations is Lloyd Everson, M.D., U.S. Oncology’s former president and a current member of its board of directors. The division’s three other top-ranking executives are all from U.S. Oncology. “This management team brings with it the medical and operational experience needed to commercially launch MolecularHealth here in North America and to make our cancer diagnostics offering available to oncologists, pathologists, patients, and their families,” said Friedrich von Bohlen, MolecularHealth’s chairman. Altogether, MolecularHealth expects to have 20 employees by the end of 2013 and 30 by the end of next year, anticipating a staff of 80 by 2017. The firm has been working for the past several years with the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on developing assays and related products. A company spokesperson said it will offer a 500-gene custom panel in the United States, along with a whole-exome test. It projects performing 2,000 tests in the United States next year. Takeaway: Large European firms see a potential benefit to breaking into the U.S. market.