CellPoint, a biopharmaceutical company, announced on Friday that it plans to commence patient recruitment for its Phase 2b cardiovascular imaging study in patients suffering from coronary artery disease using the company's new one-vial Oncardia (ethylenedicysteine-glucosamine) kits.

The trial is being conducted on 60 patients in the United States.

99mTc-Oncardia is not a perfusion agent. It is being clinically studied as the first functional cardiovascular imaging agent that is target specific for myocardial ischemia.

One of the clinical objectives of the study is to demonstrate that the product can be effectively used where the patient does not need to be either physically or pharmacologically stressed for the study. If a rest only study is clinically validated, the product is claimed to have the potential to change the dynamic for how nuclear cardiac scans are performed. The product is for use with SPECT camera systems. CellPoint is also planning to clinically study the product for use with PET camera systems.