Founding CEO Tina “Super” Nova Keeps Genoptix On a Roll

Bruce V. Bigelow3/18/10Comments (2)Follow @bvbigelow

It must be nice to be the CEO of a life sciences company that sells itself.

When Tina Nova stepped up to the microphone at the Roth Capital Partners Growth Stock Conference in Laguna Niguel, CA, yesterday, the Genoptix CEO was playing to a nearly full house. Investors and analysts occupied all but two or three seats, which wasn’t the case in many of the other presentations given on the last day of the three-day conference (even though it drew a record total of more than 3,000 attendees, according to organizers).

Carlsbad, CA-based Genoptix (NASDAQ: GXDX), as Nova succinctly puts it, “delivers personalized and comprehensive diagnostic services to community-based hematologists and oncologists.” Doctors who specialize in blood

malignancies, such as leukemias and lymphomas, send samples of their patients’ bone marrow to Genoptix. Community-based, Nova explains, simply means that most of these patients are treated in specialized neighborhood facilities instead of hospitals. The company, which operates a variety of diagnostic equipment and currently has 33 blood pathologists on staff, helps oncologists determine the best course of treatment.

“What we return to physicians is not individual test results, but a comprehensive diagnosis that enables the doctor to get that patient on the proper cancer drug at the right time,” Nova says. The company uses FedEx to deliver patient samples within 24 hours, whether they’re from Maine or … Next Page »

Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call (619) 669-8788