Christopher Slachta, Ph.D., MBA
Cytovale®, a commercial-stage medical diagnostics company focused on advancing early detection technologies to diagnose fast-moving and immune-mediated diseases, today announced the appointment of Christopher Slachta, Ph.D., MBA, as the company’s chief operating officer (COO). With more than 20 years of experience in the medical device and diagnostic industry, Slachta will lead operations as Cytovale ramps up production of its FDA-cleared rapid sepsis diagnosis test — IntelliSep®.
Christopher Slachta joins Cytovale after serving 12 years at Abbott, most recently as divisional vice president of global operations and supply chain, molecular diagnostics. While in this role, Slachta held broad profit and loss responsibilities and directly led the COVID-19 assay manufacturing emergency production ramp-up, which resulted in a 400% capacity increase in less than 60 days. Prior, he led manufacturing operations at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, where he was general manager for five Johnson & Johnson medical devices and diagnostics manufacturing sites.
“With his keen understanding of global operations and impressive track record of production scale-up in medical diagnostics, Chris is the right person to oversee acceleration of Cytovale’s operational growth plans,” said Cytovale CEO Ajay Shah. “Our initial launch of IntelliSep at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center has demonstrated tremendous clinical and quality improvements in just the first six months, and we have burgeoning interest from leading hospitals and health systems striving to improve their sepsis management, emergency department (ED) operations, and patient care. We are thrilled that Chris is joining us at this pivotal moment to help accelerate our growth with the highest attention to operational excellence and quality assurance.”
Starting in January 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) increased pressure on hospitals to rapidly identify sepsis in the ED by moving the Sepsis Core Measure, known as SEP-1, from a passive pay-for-reporting measure to a pay-for-performance measure. IntelliSep is a crucial diagnostic tool for hospitals, enabling patient risk stratification and supporting SEP-1 compliance as well. The host immune response diagnostic generates results in under 10 minutes using standard blood draws and can be seamlessly integrated into existing care workflows.
“Hospital laboratories need definitive diagnostics to detect sepsis and quickly triage patients. Ajay and his team have developed a proven solution with the potential to make a huge clinical impact on patient care,” said Slachta. “I’m excited to join this talented team and help advance the company’s vision of improving sepsis patient care on a national scale.”