WALTHAM, Mass., Dec. 8, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On-Q-ity, a next-generation oncology diagnostics company developing products to improve cancer therapy effectiveness, announced today the appointment of Gary Palmer, M.D., JD, MBA, MPH to Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Palmer was previously Vice President of Medical Affairs at Genomic Health, Inc. Dr. Palmer will be responsible for driving the clinical development and physician education and adoption of On-Q-ity's novel predictive biomarker and circulating tumor cell (CTC) diagnostic products to help physicians determine optimal treatment choices for cancer patients at each stage of their treatment cycle.
Dr. Palmer is a medical oncologist and brings to On-Q-ity more than two decades of experience in diagnostic and therapeutic companies as well as direct patient work. At Genomic Health, Dr. Palmer was instrumental in the success of the Oncotype DX(R) Breast Cancer Assay, including the widespread acceptance and reimbursement of the assay. Under his direction, Genomic Health ran numerous investigator studies with a wide variety of clinicians and institutions. Most recently, Dr. Palmer led the medical effort to introduce the Oncotype assay internationally.
"Gary's experience is a perfect fit for On-Q-ity and an important addition to the management team," said Mara Aspinall, On-Q-ity President and Chief Executive Officer. "His leadership in the development and commercialization of Oncotype, his in-depth understanding of the clinical issues and his first-hand knowledge of the real-world application for diagnostics in personalized medicine, will help guide On-Q-ity through the critical next steps of our development strategy."
Dr. Palmer's experience includes leadership positions at Kosan Biosciences, Inc. and Amgen, Inc., where he was involved in the development and commercialization strategies of Neulasta(R) and Aranesp(R).
Prior to joining industry, Dr. Palmer served as Director of the Medical Breast Service at University of California Davis, Cancer Center and Chief of Medical Oncology at Mercy Health System, Sacramento, California. For the last nine years, he has been on the adjunct faculty of the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management, where he taught "Management of Biotechnology."
Dr. Palmer received his doctorate of Medicine (MD) at the Stanford University School of Medicine and his BA from Yale University. He holds an MBA from the University of California, Davis, a Masters in Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles and a law degree from Concord University. Dr. Palmer is currently a member of the California State Bar.
About On-Q-ity
On-Q-ity is a next-generation diagnostics company transforming cancer treatment through non-invasive diagnostic monitoring. The company is developing innovative diagnostics to identify the unique characteristics of an individual's cancer, predicting the response to therapy, and monitoring the efficacy of treatment. On-Q-ity was formed through the merger of Cellective Dx, a developer of microfluidics devices to capture and analyze circulating tumor cells from the blood of cancer patients, with The DNA Repair Company, a molecular diagnostics company developing biomarker panels to predict response to cancer therapy based on DNA repair pathways in tumors.
The company's CTC and biomarker technologies originated from groundbreaking research at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and MIT, respectively. Headquartered in Waltham, MA, On-Q-ity is funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, Physic Ventures and Northgate Capital.
For more information: www.On-Q-ity.com