' Ravgen Inc. is a privately owned biotech company founded by Chairman and C.E.O. Dr. Ravinder Dhallan. Ravgen Inc. is known for its research in the prenatal diagnostic field and its development of non-invasive

prenatal diagnosis Prenatal testing consists of prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis, which are aspects of prenatal care that focus on detecting problems with the pregnancy as early as possible. These may be anatomic and physiologic problems with the health of ...

testing which was published in

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

(Lancet. 2007; 369:474-81), the

Journal of the American Medical Association ''The Journal of the American Medical Association'' (''JAMA'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of bio ...

(JAMA. 2004;291:1114-1119)., and the

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. Hist ...

(NEJM. 2012; 366:1743-1745). These publications received worldwide press in The Times,

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

(February 2007), CNN Fortune Small Business (September 2007), and

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

(June 2012) Ravgen was founded in 2000 in Columbia, Maryland by Dr. Ravinder Dhallan. Dr. Dhallan received doctorates in medicine and biomedical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University, as well as an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. The CEO and founder of the company held residency positions in oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and in emergency medicine at York Hospital in York, PA before becoming an

attending physician In the United States and Canada, an attending physician (also known as a staff physician or supervising physician) is a physician (usually an M.D. or D.O.) who has completed residency and practices medicine in a clinic or hospital, in the speci ...

in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD. Dr. Dhallan left his position at Holy Cross in 2000 in order to start his own company, Ravgen, with the pursuit of developing a safer prenatal diagnostic exam. At the time, the only options available to patients were invasive with a chance of miscarriage or lacked in accuracy. Since its start in 2000, Ravgen has developed and patented a variety of safe, accurate prenatal diagnostic tests that simply require a blood draw from the mother. The company's core technology is based on its ability to increase the percentage of fetal DNA that is found in the maternal bloodstream, something that scientists have attempted to do for decades with little success. With this breakthrough in medicine, Ravgen is able to offer safe, noninvasive, pre-birth testing alternatives for expectant mothers and give them the knowledge they need to prepare for their pregnancies.

Timeline

* Fall 2000: ''Ravgen'' founded. * March 2004: ''Ravgen'' publishes first clinical study in the Journal of the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's state ...

* February 2007: ''Ravgen'' publishes second clinical study in the Lancet * Fall 2007: ''Ravgen Diagnostics'' founded * May 2012: ''Ravgen'' publishes third clinical study in the New England Journal of Medicine

Competition

Companies and universities that are working towards developing non-invasive prenatal testing include Natera,

Sequenom Sequenom () is an American company based in San Diego, California. It develops enabling molecular technologies, and highly sensitive laboratory genetic tests for NIPT. Sequenom's wholly owned subsidiarity, Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine ...

, Artemis Health, Lenetix, Ikonisys, Fluidigm, and

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Media coverage

Ravgen has published its genetic research in internationally recognized, peer reviewed articles including JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) in 2004, The Lancet in 2007, and the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012. In addition, Ravgen has received local and global media coverage on its non-invasive prenatal DNA testing. Articles about the company and its research have been published in CNN Fortune Small Business, The Times, The Washington Post, Technology Review MIT, BBC News, Reuters, Health Day, WUSA, and

(June 2012).

References

{{Reflist

External links

Ravgen's official website

JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) "Methods to Increase the Percentage of Free Fetal DNA Recovered from the Maternal Circulation"

The Lancet "A non-invasive test for prenatal diagnosis based on fetal DNA present in maternal blood: a preliminary study"
Biotechnology companies of the United States