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, NJ and Culver City, California – October 27, 2016 – 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 Breakthroughs 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 Breakthroughs 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 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 and www.cancerBreakthroughs2020.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 healthcare 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 healthcare 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.™