NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – DermTech announced today that its licensee, DermTech Canada, has received approval to market the company's pigmented lesions assay (PLA) and noninvasive biopsy kit for melanoma detection in Canada.
As part of the approval, DermTech will market and sell the PLA in Canada, while it will process samples at the company's central laboratory in La Jolla, California. The San Diego-based company said that coverage approvals are in process in Canada with an initial focus on British Columbia and Ontario.
DermTech's PLA technology assesses skin cells to distinguish potential melanoma-associated gene expression from benign pigmented skin lesions. In addition, DermTech plans to use its technology to diagnose other forms of skin cancers including cutaneous lymphoma.
"Health Canada's approval of the license to market our assay in Canada is a further validation of the utility of our cancer detection platform and a strong statement about the potential demand for a noninvasive alternative to surgical biopsies," DermTech CEO John Dobak said in a statement.
Last November, DermTech announced that it had raised $10 million of its Series C preferred equity offering.