BG Medicine

What BG Medicine does

BG Medicine, Inc. is a publicly traded life sciences company (NASDAQ historically, now OTCQB under ticker BGMD) that develops and commercializes biomarker-based diagnostic tests, with a primary focus on cardiovascular disease. Founded in 2000 as Beyond Genomics by Flagship Ventures and rebranded to BG Medicine in February 2005, the company is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Its core commercial product is the BGM Galectin-3® Test, an FDA 510(k)-cleared (k093758, November 2010) and CE-marked in vitro diagnostic ELISA assay that quantitatively measures galectin-3 in serum or plasma as an aid in assessing prognosis of patients diagnosed with chronic heart failure. The company also offers a Research Use Only Human Galectin-3 ELISA Kit and has the CardioSCORE™ Test in development for cardiovascular risk assessment.

The underlying technology rests on a proprietary systems biology platform that integrates molecular measurement technologies—mass spectrometry, chromatography, spectroscopy, and multiplexed assays—coupled with bioinformatics workflows (Correlation Network Analysis, BioSystematics) to detect, analyze, and characterize over 1,000 biological molecules including proteins, lipids, fatty acids, organic acids, amino acids, and other compounds from small biological samples. This platform is used both to discover novel biomarkers (BioSystem Markers) and to develop molecular phenotypes of disease across cardiovascular, cancer, and CNS disorders.

BG Medicine's business model combines diagnostic kit sales (the BGM Galectin-3 Test sold to clinical reference laboratories and hospitals at a Medicare reimbursement rate of $30.01 per test under CPT code 82777) with fee-for-service pharmaceutical and biotechnology partnerships for biomarker discovery, companion diagnostic development, and translational medicine services. Revenue streams historically include upfront fees, research funding, and milestone payments from pharma collaborations (notably GSK, AstraZeneca, Takeda, and TB Alliance). The company pursues a direct enterprise field sales motion complemented by educational webinars, medical conference participation (ACC, AHA, HFSA, ESC, AAHFN), and OEM partnerships with diagnostic laboratory instrument manufacturers to broaden automated-platform adoption.

Name

BG Medicine

Legal name

BG Medicine, Inc.

Website

https://bg-medicine.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

BG Medicine is a publicly traded (OTCQB:BGMD) life sciences company that develops and commercializes biomarker-based diagnostic tests for cardiovascular disease, primarily the FDA-cleared BGM Galectin-3® Test for chronic heart failure prognosis, serving clinical laboratories, hospitals, and pharmaceutical partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cardiovascular Diagnostics

NAICS

In-Vitro Diagnostic Substance Manufacturing (325413), Medical Laboratories (621511), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

In Vitro & In Vivo Diagnostic Substances (2835), Services-Medical Laboratories (8071), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Clinical Chemistry & Hematology Diagnostics (automated analyzers, blood testing) (HLAAALAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) & Specialized Clinical Lab Assays (HLAAALAN), Clinical Trial Analytics, Risk-Based Monitoring (RBM) & Quality Management (HLACAOAI), Imaging & Cardiac Safety Core Labs (ECOG/EEG/ECG) (HLAGAAAJ)

Keywords

• Cardiac diagnostics
• Biomarker discovery
• Heart failure testing
• In vitro diagnostics
• Clinical laboratory services

Headquarters

HQ city

Waltham

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Diagnostic Test Sales: Sale of BGM Galectin-3 test kits to clinical laboratories and healthcare providers. The test is available for clinical use in the United States (FDA cleared) and European Union (CE marked). Revenue generated from kit sales and testing services offered through laboratory partners.
2. Pharmaceutical Partnership Services: Fee-for-service biomarker discovery and development collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Partners engage BG Medicine for drug discovery, development of companion diagnostics, translational medicine services, and systems biology expertise. Revenue includes upfront fees, research funding, and milestone payments.
3. Product Licensing: Out-licensing of discovered biomarkers and diagnostic tests to laboratory instrument manufacturers for development and commercialization on automated platforms.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

BG Medicine develops and commercializes molecular diagnostic products centered on its FDA 510(k) cleared BGM Galectin-3 Test, an in vitro diagnostic ELISA assay that quantitatively measures galectin-3 levels in human serum or plasma to aid in assessing prognosis of patients diagnosed with chronic heart failure. The company also offers a Research Use Only Human Galectin-3 ELISA Kit and provides fee-for-service biomarker discovery, companion diagnostic development, and systems biology services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners.

Product overview

BG Medicine is a diagnostic company focused on the development and commercialization of molecular diagnostic products, primarily centered on its lead product the BGM Galectin-3® Test. The BGM Galectin-3 Test is an FDA-cleared in vitro diagnostic ELISA assay that measures galectin-3 levels in serum or plasma as an aid in assessing prognosis of chronic heart failure patients. The company also offers a Research Use Only Human Galectin-3 ELISA Kit version for research applications. The product portfolio includes the CardioSCORE™ Test in development, targeting cardiovascular risk assessment. The BGM Galectin-3 Kit is a self-contained product with pre-coated antibody wells and supports partial plate testing. Testing services are offered through clinical laboratory partners, with reimbursement available under CPT code 82777.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BGM Galectin-3 Test: FDA-cleared diagnostic test for measuring galectin-3 levels in blood plasma or serum for heart failure prognosis assessment
• CardioSCORE Test
• Research Use Only Human Galectin-3 ELISA Kit

Products and services

• BGM Galectin-3® Test FDA 510(k) cleared in vitro diagnostic device that quantitatively measures galectin-3 in serum or plasma by ELISA on a microtiter plate platform, used as an aid in assessing the prognosis of patients diagnosed with chronic heart failure. Available for clinical use in the United States and the European Union (CE marked). Sold to clinical laboratories, hospitals, and cardiology practices.
• Research Use Only Human Galectin-3 ELISA Kit ELISA kit for research use only (not for use in diagnostic procedures) designed for quantitative measurement of human galectin-3 in serum, plasma, or other biological fluids. Includes 96-well ready-to-use microtiter plate, assay buffer, substrate, controls, and standards with a measurement range of 1.4 to 94.8 ng/mL. For research and life sciences customers.
• Biomarker Discovery and Systems Biology Services Fee-for-service biomarker discovery and development collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Engagements cover drug discovery, companion diagnostic development, predictive toxicology, drug response prediction, and translational medicine using BG Medicine's proprietary Systems Biology platform. Revenue includes upfront fees, research funding, and milestone payments.

Quantifiable outcome

• Patients with elevated galectin-3 levels have worse prognosis in terms of mortality or risk of hospitalization than comparable patients with low or normal levels.
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and strategic.

• AstraZenecacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 February 2004Pilot agreement to apply systems biology expertise to predictive toxicology. BG utilized its proprietary platforms and BioSystematics informatics tools to analyze and integrate transcript, protein, and metabolite data to discover biomarkers of drug-induced toxicity.
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 January 2004Research collaboration, option and license agreement in systems biology for drug discovery and development in metabolic diseases. GSK pays upfront fees and funds research, with BG eligible for additional payments and retention of certain rights to apply collaboration results.
• TakedaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerTakeda joined the HRP Initiative in April 2008 to discover biomarkers of high-risk atherosclerotic plaque.
• TB AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBG Medicine initiated a biomarker discovery program for TB drug development in collaboration with the TB Alliance, focused on identifying biomarkers to improve TB drug development.
• Applied BiosystemscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on molecular medicine research. Company partnered with Applied Biosystems for research and development activities.
• PhilipsstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for molecular medicine for early detection and monitoring of disease, announced August 2006.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Myriad Genetics: Myriad Genetics is a molecular diagnostics company focused on proprietary biomarker-based tests (e.g., Vectra, Prolaris, BRACAnalysis), comparable as a specialty biomarker-driven diagnostics business model, though in different disease areas.
• Euroimmun (PerkinElmer): Euroimmun (now part of PerkinElmer) is a specialty immunoassay developer with ELISAs for a wide range of biomarkers, including cardiac and fibrosis markers; a comparable platform-based diagnostics player serving clinical laboratories.
• Meso Scale Diagnostics: Meso Scale Diagnostics (MSD) develops multiplexed immunoassay platforms used in biomarker discovery and clinical research, comparable to the multiplexed assay capabilities of BG Medicine's systems biology platform.
• Randox Laboratories: Randox develops and manufactures an extensive array of clinical chemistry and immunoassay reagents, including cardiac biomarkers, frequently offered to hospital and reference labs as alternatives to galectin-3 immunoassays.

Broad incumbents

• Roche Diagnostics: Roche Diagnostics is a global IVD major with Elecsys cardiac biomarker assays (NT-proBNP, troponin, and emerging biomarkers) running on cobas automated platforms, representing a key substitute/competitor in hospital labs.
• bioMérieux: bioMérieux is a global IVD company with clinical chemistry and immunoassay platforms (VIDAS) used in hospital and reference labs for cardiac and infectious disease testing, overlapping with galectin-3 end customers.
• Siemens Healthineers: Siemens Healthineers (including the legacy Dimension and ADVIA Centaur cardiac panels) competes in the clinical chemistry/cardiac biomarker space where galectin-3 is positioned as an adjunct to BNP testing.
• QuidelOrtho: QuidelOrtho offers Triage and other cardiac biomarker point-of-care and lab-based tests for BNP, NT-proBNP, and related markers on installed analyzer bases relevant to BG Medicine's hospital channel.
• Abbott Diagnostics: Abbott Diagnostics is a global IVD leader offering a broad cardiac marker menu (including BNP and NT-proBNP) on automated analyzer platforms that can substitute for galectin-3 testing in the same cardiology workflow.

Direct peers

• Critical Diagnostics: Critical Diagnostics develops and commercializes the Presage galectin-3 assay for heart failure risk stratification, the most direct competitor to BG Medicine's BGM Galectin-3 Test in cardiac fibrosis biomarker testing.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/BGMedicine
• Facebookfacebook.com/bg.medicine
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bg-medicine
• Xx.com/bgmedicine

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds9 records

Investors5 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about BG Medicine