Just a few years into its founding, AssureRx, a Mason-based personalized medicine company, has brought on a new president and CEO with more than 30 years of strategic executive experience to grow the company.
James Burns was most recently president and CEO of Maryland-based EntreMed Inc., a public, clinical-stage pharmaceuticals company that develops cancer and inflammatory disease drug treatments.
Burns now is bringing that expertise to AssureRx, founded in 2006, through a joint investment of Queen City Angels, CincyTech, Blue Chip Venture Co., Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Tomorrow Fund, Ohio Tech Angels, DHC Tech and private investors. The company was formed to license and commercialize personalized medicine technology research from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Mayo Clinic.
AssureRx is developing the next generation of medicines, recently bringing to market its first product GeneSightRx, a lab-developed test that will measure and analyze genetic variants in psychiatric medicine -- in other words, how individuals respond to the drugs they get. The test will help doctors determine the appropriate drug and dosage for each patient's individual needs, which could lessen side effects in patients taking them.
"I believe that this technology has the potential to place AssureRx on the forefront of the emerging personalized medicine market. I look forward to leading the company during this exciting period of its development," Burns says.
The test is based on pharmacogenetics, or the study of how a person's genetic makeup influences his or her body's reaction to drug treatments.
Source: Carolyn Pione of CincyTech USA, and AssureRx
Writer: Feoshia Henderson