Exact Sciences Corp. (Nasdaq: EXAS) today announced the appointment of
Graham P. Lidgard, Ph.D., as the company’s chief scientific officer. Dr.
Lidgard, 60, brings more than three decades of clinical diagnostics
experience to Exact. His past work includes molecular and immunoassay
diagnostic product development, clinical trial preparation and
execution, and preparation of successful pre-market approval, or PMA,
and 510(k) submissions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Lidgard led the research and development organization at Gen-Probe
Inc. that developed that company’s Procleix blood-screening products and
Aptima sexually-transmitted disease products. These product lines
generated more than $400 million in revenues during 2008. Dr. Lidgard
also created and led the system development group at Gen-Probe that
developed its fully-automated Tigris system.
Prior to joining Gen-Probe, Dr. Lidgard was co-founder and vice
president of product development of Matritech Inc., a Cambridge,
Mass.-based developer of diagnostic products for the early detection of
bladder cancer. The company was acquired by Inverness Medical
Innovations Inc. in 2007. Before he co-founded Matritech, Dr. Lidgard
held senior positions at Ciba Corning Diagnostics Corp.’s worldwide
diagnostics group. While at Ciba Corning, he was involved in the
development of more than 70 510(k)-cleared products. He led the program
for the development of the magnetic particle chemiluminescent technology
that became the ACS:180 and Centaur systems. He also directed the
company’s business development and marketing groups, and held operations
and global product management positions.
Dr. Lidgard joins Exact Sciences from Nanogen Inc., where he was senior
vice president of research and development. While at Nanogen, he managed
its point of care and molecular diagnostics research and development
groups.
“Exact Sciences is very pleased to welcome Dr. Lidgard to the company,”
said Kevin T. Conroy, the company’s president and chief executive.
“Graham’s remarkable breadth and depth of molecular diagnostics
commercialization and regulatory experience will be instrumental in
Exact’s efforts to execute on our product development and clinical trial
planning priorities. We are fortunate to have an industry veteran with
Graham’s credentials join us in our mission to reduce colon cancer
deaths through early, patient-friendly detection.”
“I am delighted to join Exact Sciences at this very important time in
the company’s development,” Dr. Lidgard said.
