Personalised medicine firm ValiRx (LON:VAL) said this morning that it has struck a deal designed to expand sales in the UK’s East Midlands region of SELFCheck – a brand of personal health screening tests for which its subsidiary ValiMedix is the exclusive supplier.
ValiRx has widened its distribution network through the appointment of East Midlands-based Campdale Pharmaceuticals – a pharmacy wholesaler located near Coalville, Leicestershire.
ValiRx is looking to expand sales and grow awareness of the SELFCheck home screening diagnostic tests to satisfy demand from an increasing number of people who check themselves regularly, to detect early signs of what may be the presence of an infection or an underlying condition such as diabetes, raised cholesterol, cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.
ValiRx’s chief executive officer, Dr Satu Vainikka, today pointed out that according to a report released last year – ‘Diabetes in the UK 2010: Key Statistics on Diabetes’ – the prevalence of doctor-diagnosed diabetes in the East Midlands, which has large South Asian communities, is close to four-fold greater in Bangladeshi and almost three-fold greater in Pakistani and Indian males than those in the general population.
Meanwhile, diabetes is more than five times as likely to be diagnosed among Pakistani women, at least three times as likely in Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean women, and two-and-a-half times as likely in Indian women, compared with women in the general population.
“Early detection is very much the key when successfully addressing a great many illnesses and Campdale Pharmaceuticals will be working with ValiMedix to promote increased awareness of the availability of the SELFCheck screening tests and the benefits of early detection and medical intervention where possible and necessary,” said Vainikka.
