Qvella Appoints Richard Brock as VP of Global Marketing and Signals Start of Commercialization

Industry veteran departs bioMérieux to lead thecommercialization of Qvella’s lineup of products starting with FAST-Prep, an automated cartridge-based system for Positive Blood Culture (PBC) processing

TORONTO – MAY 19, 2021 – Qvella, a diagnostics company that aims to reduce the time to results in the diagnosis of infections, today announced that it has appointed Richard Brock as VP of Global Marketing. In this role, he will lead the imminent commercialization of Qvella’s FAST-Prep™ product for Positive Blood Culture (PBC) processing. He will be responsible for the company’s go-to-market and product strategies, building and supporting sales enablement tools, and increasing awareness of the Qvella brand. Richard takes over the VP of Marketing role from Steve Clark, who joined Qvella in March 2016 and has started to scale back in preparation for retirement later this year.

Richard comes to Qvella following a 19-year tenure with bioMérieux where he was most recently Executive Franchise Director with a focus on Automated Blood Culture, Culture Media, and Lab Automation. In this role, he managed the company’s in vitro diagnostic (IVD) product portfolio including life cycle management and new product development, encompassing microbiology and infectious disease applications including identification of infections, sepsis detection, and automation of the microbiology laboratory. Richard’s life sciences expertise spans a wide range of business functions, including R&D, strategic development, global marketing, and commercial sales.

“Richard is an industry veteran with a great track record and hands-on knowledge about the market we are about to enter,” said Tino Alavie, president, CEO, and co-founder of Qvella. “In addition to bringing a strategic focus to our marketing efforts, he is known for working collaboratively with internal and external teams, which will be a tremendous asset as we begin to enter the clinical trial phase of FAST-ID™ and define other products in our pipeline.”

Qvella sees demand for FAST-Prep PBC ahead of its commercialization

Qvella's patented FAST-Technology™ (Field Activated Sample Treatment) eliminates the need for time-consuming culture methods, allowing critically ill patients to get their infections accurately identified up to 24 hours faster than current methods so lifesaving treatment can be started much more quickly than ever before. This disruptive technology can change outcomes for patients, while simultaneously saving money for healthcare.

Qvella has successfully completed beta trials of its FAST-Prep™ PBC technology at renowned healthcare centers in the U.S. and Europe, the results of which will be published this summer at ECCMID and ASM conferences.

About Qvella Corporation

Qvella is a diagnostics company founded in 2009 by a group of scientists and engineers with the goal of dramatically reducing time to results in bacteriology. The company aims to revolutionize how medicine is practiced by significantly cutting time, costs and saving lives. Qvella's FAST technology utilizes a novel sample treatment technique that enables the rapid isolation, concentration and detection of infectious agents in a direct blood sample. When implemented in concert with Antibiotic Stewardship programs, now being adopted by most major medical centers, timely clinical decisions can be made which leads to improved patient outcomes, reduced hospital stays, lower side effect profiles, and a significant reduction in treatment costs. Qvella has 90 employees working from its headquarters in Richmond Hill, Ontario as well as offices in Carlsbad, California and Mechelen, Belgium. Additional information is available at qvella.com. 

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