Inflammatix Adds Three MedTech Industry Veterans to Executive Leadership Team

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Oct 10, 2024, 07:30 ET

Sam Ajizian, MD (Chief Medical Officer), Jamie Lewis (Chief Commercial Officer), and Laura Spencer Garth (General Counsel) Hired to Advance Commercialization of TriVerity™ Test

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, today announced the expansion of its executive leadership team to oversee launch planning for the company's lead product, the TriVerity™ Test (TriVerity). With the hiring of Sam Ajizian, MD, as Chief Medical Officer; Jamie Lewis as Chief Commercial Officer; and Laura Spencer Garth as General Counsel, the company adds three seasoned executives with extensive experience in bringing novel medical technologies to market.

Three MedTech industry veterans join Inflammatix to advance commercialization of TriVerity™ Test

"We are excited to add these talented industry veterans to our team as TriVerity continues to advance toward regulatory clearance and commercialization," said Dr. Timothy Sweeney, CEO and co-founder of Inflammatix. "Sam, Jamie, and Laura are highly experienced leaders in their respective areas of expertise, and they share our passion for promoting game-changing medical innovations and addressing significant gaps in patient care. Their contributions will be crucial to the commercialization of TriVerity, which we aim to bring to market upon FDA clearance."

Dr. Sam Ajizian joins Inflammatix after spending nearly 10 years at Medtronic, where he served as chief medical officer in the Acute Care and Monitoring businesses, which reached $2 billion in global revenues. In that role he oversaw a team of clinical and medical professionals that served over 115 million patients a year in more than 70 countries. As a medical leader he drove clinical research, medical education, and thought-leader management. Before serving in multiple roles at Medtronic, Dr. Ajizian practiced medicine and was an associate professor of Pediatric Critical Care at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Among other past clinical posts, Dr. Ajizian was an F-16 flight surgeon for the United States Air Force. At Inflammatix, Dr. Ajizian will oversee medical aspects of the planned TriVerity Test launch including building a team of medical science liaisons responsible for educating emergency physicians, lab technicians, and hospital personnel on the appropriate use of TriVerity and the Myrna™ Instrument. He will also lead clinical evidence development for the TriVerity Test along with his clinical operations and biostatistics teams.

A commercial sales executive and a strategic advisor with a proven track record of leading high-performing teams and building successful companies, Jamie Lewis will build and manage the TriVerity commercial organization. She designed and operationalized the strategy and commercial infrastructure that led Outset Medical to a successful IPO in September 2020. Previously, she served in various leadership roles at Intuitive Surgical, growing sales and market development efforts during the high-adoption phase of surgical robotics. More recently, Ms. Lewis co-founded Matter Solutions, a technology platform that is driving a coordinated care approach for providers and healthcare systems to offer virtual mental and behavioral healthcare services at scale. Ms. Lewis graduated from The Ohio State University and was team captain and a four-year starter on the Ohio State basketball team. She was the first Ohio State player drafted by the WNBA's Washington Mystics.

With over 15 years of broad corporate counseling and litigation experience, Ms. Spencer Garth is a seasoned in-house thought leader and strategic legal advisor in the medical device industry. She previously served as general counsel of Stereotaxis and Veran Medical Technologies (acquired by Olympus in 2020). Prior to her corporate roles, Ms. Spencer Garth was a litigator and trial attorney at Dolley Law LLC and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, where she counseled clients in high-stakes commercial, labor, and employment disputes across a variety of industries. At Inflammatix, Ms. Spencer Garth will lead the legal and compliance functions for the company. She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Saint Louis University School of Law.

About the TriVerity™ Test

The TriVerity Test (TriVerity), Inflammatix's lead product, is performed on the Myrna™ Instrument, the company's proprietary, cartridge-based, benchtop analyzer. TriVerity is a blood test that measures 29 messenger RNAs (mRNAs) to rapidly "read" the body's immune response to infection using machine learning-derived algorithms. The test is designed to inform on the two "axes" of sepsis -- presence of infection and risk of progression to severe illness -- in adult patients with suspected acute infection or sepsis in the emergency department setting. TriVerity thus aims to help physicians to confidently make treatment decisions, including selection of antimicrobial therapy, administering additional diagnostic testing, and whether to admit or discharge the patient.

The Myrna Instrument is capable of multiplex sample-to-answer quantitation of mRNAs in about 30 minutes. With its less than one-minute operator hands-on time and simple maintenance, the Myrna Instrument is designed for ease of use and low resource requirements.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated TriVerity as a Breakthrough Device in November 2023. The TriVerity Test and Myrna Instrument are not for sale. They are currently pending FDA clearance and have not received marketing approval or clearance from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction.

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix, Inc., a pioneering molecular diagnostics company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA, is developing novel diagnostics that rapidly read a patient's immune system to improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The Inflammatix tests will be developed to run on the company's sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The company's funders include Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Think.Health Ventures, D1 Capital, Iberis Capital, and Vesalius BioCapital. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) at @Inflammatix_Inc).

Inflammatix product development has been funded in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract Nos. 75A50119C00034 and 75A50119C00044.

TriVerity, Myrna, and Inflammatix are trademarks of Inflammatix, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries and regions.

SOURCE Inflammatix