Sistemas Medicos Nacionales becomes first international payer to cover GPS CancerTM for patients, bringing a new standard of cancer care to Mexico
CULVER CITY, Calif.– August 7, 2017 – NantHealth, Inc., (Nasdaq: NH), a leading next-generation, evidence-based, personalized healthcare company, today announced that GPS Cancer, a molecular test that helps guide cancer treatment strategies including choice of standard chemotherapy for oncologists, is now covered by Sistemas Medicos Nacionales, S.A. de C.V. (SIMNSA), a comprehensive healthcare service plan that provides quality care for patients in the cities of Tijuana, Tecate and Mexicali. With the availability and coverage of GPS Cancer, oncologists can now provide patients in northern Mexico with a more precise, personalized approach to their cancer care. The partnership marks the next step in the international expansion of GPS Cancer, which was recently also made available in Italy, Israel and the Middle East.
“In 2012, the cancer incidence rate in Mexico stood at 148,000[i] and continue to rise,” said Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, CEO of NantHealth. “We’re excited about the availability and coverage of GPS Cancer in Mexico and believe this news is supporting our ongoing commitment to the fight against cancer. We will continue with our global efforts to strive to usher in the era of quantitative proteomics and personalized treatment plans.”
The most common cancer types in Mexico are breast, colon, prostate and cervix. Under the terms of the agreement, SIMNSA will cover GPS Cancer for approximately 47,000 members in its healthcare plan. As one of the most prominent Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) programs in northern Mexico, SIMNSA was the first Mexican HMO to be licensed as a healthcare service plan by the state of California. It is also one of the largest private healthcare delivery systems in Baja, California, with more than 200 participating physicians covering all specialties of medicine.
“Our partnership with NantHealth is an important step in advancing SIMNSA’s progress in establishing more advanced cancer care for patients in Mexico,” said Christina Suggett, Chief Operating Officer, SIMNSA Health Plan. “SIMNSA is in the ideal position to bring the GPS Cancer test to Mexico and we’re proud to offer a tailored approach to their cancer treatment plans.”
GPS Cancer, a unique molecular profile performed in the CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratories of NantOmics, integrates whole genome (DNA) sequencing, whole transcriptome (RNA) sequencing, and quantitative proteomics to provide oncologists with a comprehensive molecular profile of a patient’s cancer to inform personalized treatment strategies. GPS Cancer provides 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 to build potentially more effective treatment plans based on current drugs and active clinical trials, while enabling cancer researchers to design new clinical trials that harness the potential of the immune system.
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. 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, 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 scan 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 Breakthroughs 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.