Category: Leadership

MONCTON, NB, January 9th, 2024 – Breathe BioMedical (BBM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Rachel Brem to the company’s Board of Directors in her newly appointed role of Executive Director and Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Rachel Brem

Dr. Brem is a world-renowned expert in breast cancer and the Director of the Breast Imaging and Interventional Center at the George Washington University. She is a cutting-edge clinician, researcher with over 120 peer-reviewed publications, author of a recently published book, No Longer Radical: Understanding Mastectomies and Choosing the Breast Cancer Care that’s Right for You (Simon and Schuster, 2023), advocate, and a breast cancer survivor. She has been recognized as a Top Cancer Doctor by Newsweek as well as a Best American Physician, Best Cancer Doctor by numerous organizations as well as Whose Who in American Medicine.

Throughout her career, Dr. Brem has been instrumental in developing, implementing and advancing groundbreaking technologies to improve the diagnosis and outcomes of breast cancer including artificial intelligence, molecular breast imaging and ultrasound tomography.

BBM is focused on developing an accessible, noninvasive breath test to detect breast cancer in women, specifically women with dense breast tissue. Dr. Brem’s leadership in breast cancer and her leadership in the critically important area of dense breast tissue makes her an optimal addition to our team. Her unique experiences make her the ideal person to help guide and support our initiatives as we advance our clinical study with our exciting platform technology.

Dr. Brem is the Chief Medical Officer of the Brem Foundation, a 501(c) 3 which began nearly 20 years ago, inspired by her mission and life story that is dedicated to the early detection of breast cancer. The Brem Foundation focuses on education, health equity and advocacy on the local and national level and is instrumental in passage of breast cancer legislation. Their mission to maximize women’s chances of finding early, curable breast cancer through education, access, and advocacy is well aligned with BBM’s mission.

“Dr. Brem is a renowned radiologist and researcher in the breast cancer field. Her story is incredibly inspiring and her passion and drive to find early, accessible methods for breast cancer detection is directly aligned with our work and mission at BBM,” said BBM CEO, Bill Dawes. “We are excited to have Dr. Brem’s leadership at the Executive Director level to lead our Clinical and Regulatory strategy as our Chief Medical Officer.”

“The team at BBM is developing technology that will address the challenges of early breast cancer detection to further decrease breast cancer mortality. I look forward to joining BBM to support their development in the breast cancer field,” said Dr. Brem of her new role at BBM.

Dr. Brem received her medical degree from Colombia University, completing an internship in internal medicine at Sinai Hospital and her residency in radiology at John Hopkins Hospital.

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About Breathe BioMedical: Breathe BioMedical (BBM) is a medical technology company focused on developing an accurate breath test to detect early-stage breast cancer in women. Breath analytics involves the collection, processing, and analysis of breath samples to identify biomarker patterns associated with specific diseases. BBM is located in Moncton, New Brunswick and its US subsidiary is located in Boston, Massachusetts. One day, detecting disease may be as easy as breathing.

MONCTON, NB, September 5th, 2023 – Breathe BioMedical (BBM) has announced Bill Dawes as their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective August 14, 2023. Bill has served as the Chief Business Officer (CBO) at BBM over the last two years before stepping into the role of CEO in August.

BBM CEO, Bill Dawes

Bill is an experienced leader in the pharma and diagnostics space, having held executive level positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lantheus Medical Imaging and LikeMinds. He brings broad experience in business and operations functions within highly regulated, public, and private company settings with experience ranging from large companies to start-up settings.

When speaking of the announcement, BBM’s Executive Vice Chair, Telfer Hanson said, “In my short time with the company I have become even more impressed with the technology and the team at Breathe BioMedical. I am excited to have Bill, with his broad background and experience, in this critical leadership role as we advance our work for this platform technology in the breast cancer screening space.”

BBM is a clinical development stage company that is currently developing an accurate, accessible and non-invasive breath test to detect early-stage breast cancer in women. Today there are significant limitations of screening with mammography for women with dense breast tissue. Nearly 50% of women have dense breast tissue for which mammography has a lower sensitivity. BBM is developing its technology platform to enable non-invasive disease screening with improved accuracy for breast cancer detection in all women, including those with dense breast tissue.

Speaking of the new role, Bill said, “I am thrilled to lead this team as we advance this revolutionary technology clinically in breast cancer. My goal is to make this technology a reality for early-stage, accessible breast cancer screening. There is a clear unmet clinical need for a breast cancer screening test that will be sensitive enough for all women, and we believe we can develop that test.”

In addition to this exciting announcement, Breathe BioMedical has welcomed Dr. Norman Betts to its Board of Directors. Dr. Betts is a seasoned professional with experience in corporate, government and academic sectors. He has extensive expertise as a board member and senior leader. His experiences include being the Minister of Finance for New Brunswick, a Director at NB Power, a Director at Bank of Canada and a Professor at the University of New Brunswick. We are thrilled to have Dr. Betts join our team and bring his valuable financial and board experience to BBM.

BBMs recent changes in leadership and area of clinical study are representative of the clear and focused plan which has been developed for the company resulting in an even brighter outlook ahead for this exciting technology.

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BBM is a medical technology company focused on developing an accurate breath test to detect early-stage breast cancer in women. Breath analytics involves the collection, processing, and analysis of breath samples to identify biomarker patterns associated with specific diseases.

In 2023, research by Dr. Farah Naz that used BBM technology, was published in an online abstract at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference. This sub-group analysis showed greater than 88% accuracy in differentiating between the breath signatures of women with early-stage breast cancer, compared to those without breast cancer. The research also found that breast tissue density had no noticeable effect on the results.

BBM is located in Moncton, New Brunswick and its US subsidiary is located in Boston, Massachusetts. One day, detecting disease will be as easy as breathing.

MONCTON, NB, May 31st, 2022 – Breathe BioMedical is pleased to announce the appointment of Don Hardison to the Board of Directors. 

Don Hardison

Don has extensive leadership experience in executive positions as President and CEO of Biotheranostics, Good Start Genetics and EXACT Sciences. Don also has a wide range of experiences with companies including LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics and SmithKline Corporation. He currently sits on the boards of HTG Molecular, BioPorto, MDXHealth, YourBio Health, and Stemina Biomarker Discovery. His impressive background in the healthcare and clinical diagnostics space makes him a great asset to our team at Breathe BioMedical (BBM). Don understands the unique complexities of the medical field, allowing him to help guide and support our initiatives.  

Don has a Bachelor of Political Science degree from the University of North Carolina.  

“Since I first met the company, I was very impressed by the promise of collecting a breath sample and being able to perform different analyses related to oncology, Parkinson’s or other problematic diseases and disorders” says Don Hardison. “I think we have a chance to do something really special with a relatively simple sample source. It’s going to be hard work, but I’m impressed with the team and everyone I have met.” 

Don’s healthcare expertise is found in complex healthcare reimbursement framework and processes, strategic development, team-building and go-to-market planning and execution. His many successful fundraising rounds exemplify his knowledge and mastery of improving and expanding companies. Don’s passion and extensive network will be great assets to our team at Breathe BioMedical.  

“Don’s impressive track record at developing and commercializing groundbreaking biotechnologies speaks for itself,” says BBM’s Chairman of the Board, Jean Nadeau. “BBM’s disruptive potential is amazing. We are grateful to have a high-quality resource like Don informing BBM strategy and key decisions.” 

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