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.™