Former Deputy FDA Commissioner John Norris Appointed Chief Operating Officer at Health Discovery Corporation

SAVANNAH, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Health Discovery Corporation (OTCBB: HDVY.OB), a personalized medicine company specializing in molecular diagnostics including gene-based testing, as well as computer assisted diagnostics in digital pathology and radiology, announced that former Deputy FDA Commissioner John A. Norris has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Company. He will be responsible for business development, primarily creating new strategic partnerships, licenses and contracts to complement the Company’s existing agreements with Quest Diagnostics, Abbott Molecular, Pfizer, Bruker and Clarient.

“We are extremely fortunate to have attracted someone of John Norris’ caliber,” said Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D., chairman and CEO of Health Discovery Corporation (HDC). “We expect that his extensive experience and vast relationships in the healthcare space will make a very meaningful contribution to our growth trajectory. John is a visionary leader who understands how the groundbreaking analytics that we have developed and patented could change the face of diagnostic testing for personalized medicine. His extensive knowledge of the business of healthcare around the world will help us accelerate the commercialization of HDC's new gene-based urine test for prostate cancer.”

According to Mr. Norris, "Dr. Barnhill has assembled a world-class team of researchers, investigators and advisors who have pioneered a bold new approach to diagnostics that will vastly improve the speed and accuracy of testing in the realm of gene-based testing, as well as in digital pathology and digital radiology." HDC holds 72 critical patents that are central to the digital convergence of diagnostics, pathology and radiology. “I am very pleased to be part of this outstanding team," Mr. Norris added.

“Our patented Support Vector Machine and Recursive Feature Elimination pattern recognition technologies have been independently validated by top researchers, academics and business professionals around the world and published in dozens of peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals and have broad applicability wherever highly accurate conclusions must be drawn from vast amounts of complex data,” Dr. Barnhill said.

Dr. Barnhill continued, “In addition, we expect that John will be a huge asset in promoting our gene-based test for clinically significant prostate cancer recently licensed for commercialization to Abbott, Quest Diagnostics, and Clarient. Right now, half a million men a year in the United States alone have painful, expensive but unnecessary biopsies for prostate cancer based solely on PSA findings, the current world standard for prostate cancer screening. The previously-announced results of our forthcoming urine-based test for prostate cancer could eliminate many of these unnecessary biopsies and unnecessary treatments such as radical prostate surgery stemming from false positive readings on the PSA test.”

Mr. Norris brings more than 20 years of healthcare industry and consulting expertise to HDC. He has advised the senior management of numerous global businesses in the life sciences, healthcare, pharma, diagnostics and healthcare-IT industries, among them Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo, the AMA, The Adventist Healthcare System, The Caritas Christi Healthcare System, and Partners Health Care System. He also has extensive management experience including leading the team responsible for the billion dollar turn-around and sale of laser-eye-surgery pioneer Summit Technology. He received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Rochester, his M.B.A. and J.D. from Cornell University and a Certificate in Government from Harvard University, where he also taught for twelve years. He is the founder and faculty-editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Law & Medicine, a leading healthcare policy, law, and regulation journal.

About Health Discovery Corporation

Health Discovery Corporation is a molecular diagnostics company that uses advanced mathematical techniques to analyze large amounts of data to uncover patterns that might otherwise be undetectable. It operates primarily in the emerging field of personalized medicine where such tools are critical to scientific discovery. Its primary business consists of licensing its intellectual property and developing its own product line of biomarker-based diagnostic tests that include human genes and genetic variations, as well as gene, protein, and metabolic expression differences and image analysis in digital pathology and radiology.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which is necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, statements regarding future performance, opportunities and investments, and anticipated results in general. From time to time the Company may make other forward-looking statements relating to other matters, including without limitation, commercialization plans and strategic partnerships. Actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, including, among other things, the acceptance of our approach to applying mathematics computer science and physics into the disciplines of biology, organic chemistry and medicine and our products and technologies associated with those approaches, the ability to develop or commercialize new drugs, therapies or other products based on our approaches, and other factors set forth from time to time in the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

All forward-looking statements and cautionary statements included in this document are made as of the date hereof based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or cautionary statement.

for Health Discovery Corporation
Matthew Swetonic, 212-922-0900
mswetonic@dgi-nyc.com
or
Tom Gallagher, 212-922-0900
tgallagher@dgi-nyc.com