diaDexus

diaDexus, Inc. was a biotechnology firm specializing in the development and commercialization of diagnostic tests for cardiovascular diseases. Founded in 1997 and based in South San Francisco, California, the company focused on providing healthcare practitioners with tools to assess cardiac disease risk. Patrick Plewman co-founded the company and served as its CEO, leading its evolution from research to the commercialization of its key products.

The company's flagship product was the PLAC Test, the first blood test cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help predict the risk of coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke. This test measures the level of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2), an enzyme linked to vascular-specific inflammation and the formation of rupture-prone plaque, a primary cause of heart attacks. diaDexus offered two versions of this test: the PLAC Test ELISA Kit and the PLAC Test for Lp-PLA2 Activity, which could be run on common high-throughput clinical chemistry analyzers in laboratories. The business model centered on selling these test kits to clinical laboratories, which in turn offered the test to physicians and healthcare providers. The company also provided services to pharmaceutical partners, allowing them to incorporate these cardiac biomarkers into their clinical development programs.

In July 2010, the privately-held diaDexus completed a reverse merger with VaxGen, Inc., a publicly-traded company. This transaction provided diaDexus with access to public markets and VaxGen's cash resources, with the combined entity continuing under the diaDexus name and ticker symbol DDXS. The company showed revenue growth, reporting $3.8 million in the second quarter of 2011, a 45% increase over the prior year. However, diaDexus faced financial challenges and, after failing to restructure a loan, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June 2016 to liquidate its assets. In April 2016, the operational assets of the company were acquired by Diazyme Laboratories. The company officially went out of business upon completion of liquidation in September 2021.

Keywords: cardiovascular diagnostics, Lp-PLA2, PLAC Test, cardiac biomarker, heart disease risk, stroke risk assessment, in vitro diagnostics, vascular inflammation, diagnostic test kits, coronary heart disease, immunoassay, molecular diagnostics, atherosclerosis, diaDexus, VaxGen, Diazyme Laboratories, Patrick Plewman, enzyme immunoassay, clinical laboratory tests, cardiac risk prediction