New Jersey’s largest health insurance plan to reimburse for
comprehensive molecular test in investigational cancer studies across
four mid-Atlantic health systems
Health systems who order GPS Cancer will also track cost and outcomes
through COTA, a leading oncology analytics software platform
HACKENSACK, N.J. & CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
NantHealth,
Inc. (Nasdaq: NH), a leading next-generation, evidence-based,
personalized healthcare company, today announced that Horizon Blue Cross
Blue Shield of New Jersey (BCBSNJ) will cover the GPS
Cancer test for its members enrolled in investigational studies for
key cancer types—non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, colon
cancer, cancer of unknown primary—across leading health systems in the
mid-Atlantic. These institutions include the Hospital of University of
Pennsylvania (HUP), Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Hackensack Medical
Center, Meridian Hospital and Regional Cancer Care Associates LLC
(RCCA), who will also utilize COTA,
Inc.’s analytics solution to monitor and track differences in
clinical outcomes and cost-analysis throughout these investigational
efforts. Horizon BCBSNJ will sponsor the GPS Cancer tests for a sample
of up to 150 eligible patients.
“This is a significant milestone for NantHealth and we are excited about
this partnership with Horizon, the largest payer in New Jersey and
second major Blues plan to cover GPS Cancer, and COTA,” stated Patrick
Soon-Shiong, MD, founder and CEO of NantHealth and founder of the Cancer
MoonShot 2020 initiative. “With these institutions, we’re working to
pioneer change for cancer patients by arming providers with the most
valuable and relevant information. With GPS Cancer, New Jersey-area
oncologists will have access to cutting-edge genomic sequencing and
proteomics capabilities that will help them guide treatment strategies
before therapy begins, thereby enabling the delivery of higher quality,
more cost-effective care for their patients.”
GPS Cancer, a comprehensive molecular test offered by NantHealth,
integrates quantitative proteomics with whole genome (DNA) and
transcriptome (RNA) sequencing, to provide oncologists with a
comprehensive molecular profile of a patient’s cancer to inform
personalized treatment strategies. As a cornerstone of the Cancer
MoonShot 2020 program, GPS Cancer provides the critical insights
based on the unique biology of a patient’s tumor—from the DNA to the RNA
to the protein. The richness of this information helps doctors
build more effective treatment plans based on FDA-approved drugs and
active clinical trials, while enabling cancer researchers to design new
clinical trials that harness the potential of the immune system.
“Horizon is committed to collaborating with medical leaders and
leveraging new clinical technologies to help our 3.8 million members
defeat cancer,” said Allen Karp, senior vice president of Healthcare
Management for Horizon BCBSNJ.
“For years we’ve treated cancer without being informed by a patient’s
specific DNA, but we all have unique genetic profiles which react
differently to different treatment approaches,” said Mary Ann
Christopher, chief of Clinical Operations and Transformation at Horizon
BCBSNJ. “The GPS Cancer test allows health professionals to understand
an individual person’s genetic profile and then design a very specific
and personalized course of treatment,” she said.
COTA (“Cancer Outcomes Tracking and Analysis”) is an industry-leading
analytics company that tracks the quality of care and associated costs
of cancer treatment. COTA’s cloud-based platform sorts patients
according to specific subsets of information and provides outcome
tracking including overall survival, progression-free survival and
cost-effectiveness. Throughout the investigational studies, COTA will
analyze medical expense performances for oncologists using GPS Cancer to
determine the most appropriate, personalized treatment plans.
“By partnering with Horizon and NantHealth, we hope to better impact the
lives of those facing three of the most common cancers in New Jersey,”
said Andrew L. Pecora, MD, FACP, CPE, founder and executive chairman of
COTA. “Using COTA technologies that precisely measures variance in
clinical and cost outcomes has the potential to improve cancer research
and deliver higher quality care for Horizon’s members at potentially
lower costs. This initiative underscores our commitment to the cancer
community and we are excited about the possibilities of this joint
partnership.”
Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This
press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, among
others, statements regarding the capabilities and anticipated utility of
our GPS Cancer, including predicting patient response and resistance to
therapeutics, enabling diagnoses by physicians and accelerating efforts
to bring novel combinations of therapeutic agents to cancer patients, as
well as our contribution to the Cancer 2020 initiative. Forward-looking
statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from currently anticipated
results. Factors that may cause future results to differ materially from
management’s current expectations include, among other things, that GPS
Cancer may not perform as anticipated, that sufficient physicians may
not adopt GPS Cancer to assist their diagnoses or that healthcare payers
may not provide reimbursement for GPS Cancer as expected. Our business
is subject to numerous additional risks and uncertainties, including,
among others, risks relating to market acceptance of our products; our
ability to successfully launch new products and applications;
competition; our sales, marketing and distribution capabilities; our
planned sales, marketing, and research and development activities;
unanticipated increases in costs or expenses; and risks associated with
international operations. Information on these and additional risks,
uncertainties, and other information affecting our business and
operating results can be found in our existing and future filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date hereof. We disclaim any obligation to update
these forward-looking statements except as may be required by law.
About NantHealth, Inc.
NantHealth, Inc., a member of
the NantWorks ecosystem of companies, is a next-generation,
evidence-based, personalized healthcare company enabling improved
patient outcomes and more effective treatment decisions for critical
illnesses. NantHealth‘s unique systems-based approach to personalized
healthcare applies novel diagnostics tailored to the specific molecular
profiles of patient tissues and integrates this molecular data in a
clinical setting with large-scale, real-time biometric signal and
phenotypic data to track patient outcomes and deliver precision
medicine. For nearly a decade, NantHealth has developed an adaptive
learning system, CLINICS, which includes its unique software, middleware
and hardware systems infrastructure that collects, indexes, analyzes and
interprets billions of molecular, clinical, operational and financial
data points derived from novel and traditional sources, continuously
improves decision-making and further optimizes our clinical pathways and
decision algorithms over time. For more information please visit www.nanthealth.com and
follow Dr. Soon-Shiong on Twitter @DrPatSoonShiong.
About GPS Cancer™
GPS Cancer™ is a unique, molecular profile
analysis available through NantHealth. GPS Cancer integrates whole
genome (DNA) sequencing, whole transcriptome (RNA) sequencing, and
quantitative proteomics through mass spectrometry, providing oncologists
with a comprehensive molecular profile of a patient’s cancer and an
assessment of protein pathway function to inform personalized treatment
strategies. GPS Cancer scanning is conducted in CLIA-certified and
CAP-accredited laboratories, and is a key enabler for Cancer MoonShot
2020, the world’s most comprehensive cancer collaborative initiative
seeking to accelerate the potential of combination immunotherapy as the
next generation standard of care in cancer patients. For more
information, visit www.gpscancer.com and
www.cancermoonshot2020.org.
About Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Horizon
Blue
Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the state's oldest and largest health
insurer is a tax-paying, not-for-profit health service corporation,
providing a wide array of medical, dental, and prescription insurance
products and services. Horizon BCBSNJ is leading the transformation of
health care in New Jersey by working with doctors and hospitals to
deliver innovative, patient-centered programs that reward the quality,
not quantity, of care patients receive. Learn more at www.HorizonBlue.com.
Horizon BCBSNJ is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue
Shield Association serving more than 3.8 million members.
About COTA, Inc.
COTA is the health care informatics and
precision analytics company that builds research-grade, real-world data
to exponentially improve outcomes, reduce cost and ensure the right care
for the right patient every time. The patented COTA Nodal Address System
(CNA) is the first and only digital classification system that
transforms prognostically significant variables into a digital code --
precisely categorizing patient factors, their diseases and intended
therapies to measure treatment outcomes, identify variances in care and
enable quality benchmarking, research, discovery and the transition to
value-based medicine. For more information, please visit www.oncota.com.
COTA - Best Care Made Clear.™
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161027006404/en/
NantHealth
Dorit Baxter, 401-871-0734
Dbaxter@nanthealth.com
or
Horizon
Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
Kevin McArdle, 973-466-5336
Kevin_McArdle@HorizonBlue.com
Source: NantHealth, Inc.