Cardiovascular Disease - Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure, or CHF, a condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to the rest of the body, affects an estimated 5 million people in the United States and we believe a similar number in Europe. CHF may result from a variety of causes, including narrowing of the coronary arteries, a previous heart attack, chronic high blood pressure, or defects of the heart valves or muscle itself. Patients typically present with rather non-specific symptoms such as swollen legs or ankles, shortness of breath, or weight gain. To treat CHF effectively, and avoid its more serious complications, doctors need an accurate diagnosis and a prediction of the expected course of the patient’s condition.

BG Medicine has in-licensed the commercial rights to a new biomarker for CHF that was discovered by scientists at University Hospital Maastricht. As reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in March 2006, these scientists and clinicians at the Massachusetts General Hospital studied 599 patients presenting to the emergency department with shortness of breath, of which 209, or 35%, were found to have acute heart failure. Measurements of two proteins found in plasma, called BNP and galectin-3, were each found to correlate with a diagnosis of acute heart failure. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, an elevated level of galectin-3 was the best independent predictor of 60-day mortality or the combination of death/recurrent HF within 60 days. Moreover, the combined level of these two proteins was a highly significant predictor of a patient’s odds of death or recurrent heart failure within 60 days.

We plan to develop a test for the combined diagnosis and prognosis of patients with congestive heart failure based on measuring the plasma levels of galectin-3 alone or in combination with BNP. We believe that such a test will benefit patients, physicians and payors by enabling better identification and management of the patients with the worst prognosis, thereby reducing adverse outcomes including hospitalization and death. We are currently beginning the assay development phase of product development.