PinkDx Names Marra S. Francis, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer

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Nov 04, 2024, 09:00 ET

DALY CITY, Calif., Nov. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- PinkDx, Inc., an early-stage diagnostics company focused on positively impacting the health of women throughout their life journey, today announced the appointment of Marra S. Francis, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., as chief medical officer.

Marra S. Francis, M.D., is named Chief Medical Officer of PinkDx.

Dr. Francis is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist with over 20 years of experience in clinical practice and clinical leadership roles across the diagnostics and biotech sectors. She also currently serves on the faculty of the MIT Catalyst program. Most recently, Dr. Francis served as chief medical officer at Genece Health, a molecular testing start-up focused on early cancer detection, where she led clinical trial design and study collaborations. Prior to that, she held several leadership positions and was a clinical advisor to diagnostics firms with tests at various stages of development and commercialization. Earlier in her career, she served as vice chair and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Memorial Hermann Hospital of the Woodlands in Texas.

Dr. Francis holds a medical degree from the University of Connecticut Health Center and a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Occidental College.

"We are excited for Dr. Francis to join the PinkDx team to advance our work in addressing unmet medical needs uniquely faced by women," said Bonnie Anderson, PinkDx's cofounder and chief executive officer. "Her deep clinical development expertise and extensive medical affairs experience will be incredibly valuable to us from our early-stage efforts through test commercialization."

Leveraging its RNA-based, multi-omic discovery platform, PinkDx will initially focus on improving diagnostic outcomes for women who have vague symptoms that may signal a gynecological cancer. Each year in the United States, an estimated 1.5 million women^1-3 present with general symptoms including bloating, pelvic pain and abnormal bleeding, for which the cause is not clear. Over 100,000 women in the U.S. are ultimately diagnosed with a gynecological cancer each year.⁴ PinkDx will develop solutions to replace invasive and painful diagnostic procedures and mitigate the significant delays women and their doctors often face in obtaining answers.

About PinkDx
PinkDx is an early-stage company focused on addressing the medical problems that women uniquely face by applying sophisticated scientific approaches to resolve them and providing answers that have an immediate, positive impact on their lives. The company's first indication will focus on overcoming diagnostic challenges for women who present with general symptoms that could signal a gynecological cancer. PinkDx is privately held, with Series A funding from prominent biotechnology investors, including Catalio Capital Management, The Production Board, Mountain Group Partners, Byers Capital and Mayo Clinic. The company's operations are in Daly City, California. For more information, please visit www.pinkdx.com or follow the company on LinkedIn.

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¹Chelmow, D. et al. Executive Summary of the Uterine Cancer Evidence Review Conference. Obstetrics and Gynecology vol. 139 626–643 Preprint at https://doi.org/10.1097/AOG.0000000000004711 (2022).
²Clarke, M. A. et al. Association of endometrial cancer risk with postmenopausal bleeding in women a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med 178, 1201–1208 (2018).
³Siegel, R. L., Miller, K. D. & Jemal, A. Cancer statistics, 2020. CA Cancer J Clin 70, 7–30 (2020).
⁴ American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2024. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2024.